Spark Sitting
by Dracannia
Summary: A small family on the farm is, of course, normal. It gets wild and wacky once they find a small robotic alien on their property! They now have to take care of the sparkling in hopes that someone will come back to claim it.
1. The Dawsons

**I do not own Transformers, but I do own the human characters and the sparkling. Which, by the way, is adorable!

* * *

**

Chapter I

Daniel Dawson was sleeping in his bed, dreaming about the last time he saw his wife in a car crash. She was walking down the road until someone drunk had swerved across the street in ran her into a tree. Her last words were "Tell Andrew and Mimi to play nice. Soon, you'll be gone and the only people they'll have is each other." He promised her he would. "And, Daniel, take care of the baby. They'll come get it." He never knew what she had meant by that. They didn't have a baby; both of their kids were already age seven and age six.

He woke up in his bed, hearing a scream outside the house. His brother, Henry, fallen out of the bed that was across the room and looked around. Daniel gave a nod to him and both ran out of the house with their night clothes on. Out in the corn field, they heard the scream again.

"Mary!" Daniel shouted. His brother followed him into the crops and looked for the girl. The first one they saw wasn't her, but Daniel's son, Andrew.

"Andrew, are you alright?"

"The dogs were barking," he said. "They almost got away."

"Where's Mimi?"

"Help!" came the familiar voice of his daughter. He told Henry to wait there and ran in the direction of the scream. He saw her standing in the middle of the field, holding herself tightly and crying. Daniel wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up. He started patting her back to calm her down.

"It's alright, baby," he sighed. "It's okay."

"I had a dream," she cried. "There was something in the corn and I didn't know what it was."

"It was only a dream, okay?" Daniel assured her. "It wasn't real, all right? Come on, let's go back home." They walked through the corn field and met up with Henry and Andrew on the front porch of the house.

"Is she all right?" Henry asked.

"She's fine; she was just spooked, that's all." He set her down and the girl ran to Andrew. He accepted her and hugged his little sister.

"It was scary!" she cried. Andrew kept hugging his sister until she was okay to let go.

"Henry, take her inside to get some breakfast," Daniel said. "I'll go and see if the dogs are okay."

"Sure thing. C'mon, Mimi," Henry said. He took Mimi's hand and led her inside with Andrew following behind. Daniel walked inside the barn and his two huskies stood up in alert, their ears forward.

"Hey, Bud, Kenny," he muttered to them. Bud, the grey husky, walked forward and Daniel petted the dog's head. Kenny got jealous a bit and ran up to him as well, rubbing his head on his master's leg. "You two been good to each other?" Ken gave a happy bark in reply. "Good boy." He stood up and reached for a can of dog food on the high shelf in the barn. He opened it up with a large knife and let it fall into the bowl the dogs shared. After that, he went to let out the animals so they could feed themselves and run around a bit.

Inside the house, Mary was picking through some food, trying to find something that would satisfy her taste. She went through a couple of boxes and couldn't find anything.

"For Christ's sake, Mimi, can't you find something!" Andrew shouted. Henry shot up a finger at the boy and said to never use His name in vain. "Sorry, Uncle Henry. But she can never find something to eat!"

"They all taste funny," Mary argued. "I want some cereal."

"We have cereal, sweetie," said Henry.

"But it's old."

"We got it last week!"

"It's old."

Henry sighed. There was no reason to fight with an eight-year old. He stood up and walked over to the pantry to find something.

"How about I cook up some eggs and bacon? How does that sound?"

"Okay."

"All right, Andrew, put some bread in the toaster. Mary, get the pans and put them on the stove. Do _not _turn it on!"

"Yes, Uncle Henry," they said together. Andrew went to find the toaster in the cluttered mess they had and Mary skipped over to the doors under the sink to get the pans. Daniel walked in and saw his two kids working.

"Henry, tell me how you get them to do this," he said. "I can't even get them to clean their own rooms."

"Easy, bro. Food is what they center on. If they want food, they'll do something. Try it tonight. Tell them to clean their rooms or they'll go to bed hungry."

"I think they'd rather go hungry! What would Crystal think?"

"I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

"Starving her kids? I think she would!"

Daniel grabbed the eggs out of the refrigerator, Mary grabbed the butter and was ready for the toast to pop up, Andrew turned on the stove, and Henry started cracking the eggs.

"Can I go watch some TV?" Andrew asked. Mary stood next to him to show she wanted to watch television as well.

"Turn on the news, maybe something happened last night," Daniel said. He was trying to get his kids to watch something real instead of that sponge in the box-shaped clothes. Andrew nodded and Mary followed him over to the living room. They turned on the television and switched it from the History Channel over to the morning news.

"There's something every parent would want to see," Henry laughed. "Their kids willing watching the news."

"Do you want me to write a book or something?" Daniel teased.

"By all means! Oh, damn it." Henry moved the pan full of eggs off the stove and over to the counter. He moved the eggs around so none of them would burn. "Hey, Andrew!" he shouted. "What's the haps?"

"Something fell from the sky!" he yelled from the room. "They don't know where it landed exactly, but they say it's in our area."

"It's an alien!" Mary cheered in the background.

Henry looked over at his brother. Daniel shrugged and helped put the eggs on four different plates.

"Aliens?" Henry scoffed. "What, they're doing crop circles again?"

"We would've seen one by now, or they might do it tonight," Daniel sighed. "Either way, this whole thing is just a bunch of bologna."

"Daddy, can I go outside to pet the dogs?" Mary said. Daniel gave a nod and she ran out to the barn. Well, she didn't exactly go inside the barn. She walked around it to look for that alien she saw on the news. Andrew walked outside and saw his sister circling around the building like a vulture.

"Mary, what are you doing?" he said. "I thought you were inside."

"Shh!" Mary hissed. "I'm looking for the alien!"

"There's no such thing!"

_Beep!_

Both of the children flinched. They looked around to see what it was but nothing popped up.

"What the heck was that?" Andrew whispered. Mary put on a big smile.

"The alien!" she said excitedly.

"Mimi, seriously," he groaned. "Can't you just be reasonable for one second?"

"It's the alien!"

_Beep-beep! Wop…_

"See?! What kind of person can make that sound?" Mary argued, putting her hands on her hips.

"Someone with a video game."

_Bwop pop…_

"It's inside the barn," Mary whispered, putting her finger to her lips. She tiptoed over to the barn door and pushed it open slowly, making it creak. The dogs were standing around a small patch on the edge of the barn and sniffing it. Andrew and Mary couldn't see what it was; it was covered in straw.

"Mary, Andrew! You still out there?!" Daniel shouted.

"Yeah, Dad!" Andrew yelled back.

"Come inside! Breakfast is ready!"

Andrew grabbed Mary's arm and pulled her back towards the house. The two giant huskies were stilling sniffing over the pile of straw. Two blue eyes were shown and the dogs jumped. Ken was brave enough to take a step closer.

_Chu! Kree, kree! Wrrrrr…bob!_


	2. Foster

Chapter II

Mary was picking at her dinner as if it was some kind of green Jell-O with mud as its filling. Daniel noticed it and groaned.

"Mary, why don't you ever eat your spaghetti?" he said.

"Because it tastes funny," she said.

"Mary," Henry interrupted, "this stuff will make you a whole lot stronger. See, the meatballs make you tough!"

"What do the noodles do?"

"Uh, well, they-they-they…Your dad knows!" Every eye turned to Daniel as he was slurping down spaghetti. He swallowed the mouth-full and spoke.

"Helps you grow," he said simply.

"Is that why the noodles are so long?" she said.

"Exactly!" He twirled his fork in another spot of spaghetti and scooped it up into his mouth. Mary shrugged and took some of her own spaghetti. She analyzed it before she tried to swallow the entirety of what was on the fork.

"Mimi, slow," Daniel instructed. Mary obeyed her dad and started chewing slowly, her lips pursing out.

"Now you just look like a cow," Andrew commented. Henry grabbed his napkin and leaned to the side to wipe off the tomato sauce that was on Mary's mouth.

"Next time just get half, all right?" he said. Mary nodded her head and swallowed her food. She took another fork-full of spaghetti and only bit into a piece of it. "Good girl."

"Andrew, did you feed the dogs?" Daniel grunted, trying to choke down the noodles.

"No, Dad, I haven't," Andrew said, knowing what the next sentence was going to be.

"Finish that plate, rinse it, put it in the dishwasher, then go feed the dogs," his dad instructed. Andrew obeyed and chucked down the rest of his food. He rinsed it off until it looked like it was already clean and put it in the dishwasher. He grabbed the flashlight from the counter and walked outside. The cornstalks brushed in the wind and made him nervous to be outside in the dark. He creaked open the barn door and the dogs came running to him.

"Hey, Kenny!" he said, rubbing the dog's head. Bud barked at Andrew and ran back over to a straw pile. Andrew shined the flashlight in that same direction. Bud kept picking at the pile.

"What is it, boy?" he whispered. The dog started whimpering and gave out one scared bark.

_Rawrk!_

Andrew jumped at the unexpected noise. He walked closer to the straw pile and tried to peer over into it without startling anything. He looked into the middle of the pile and…

***

"GAAAHHAAH!" Daniel, Henry, and Mary heard the sound while still inside the house. Daniel got up quick and didn't care about the mess he made on the floor.

"Andrew!" he shouted. He ran outside with Henry and Mary following right behind him. They ran out into the barn and saw Andrew pointing the light at something.

"What is it?" he said. Andrew didn't turn his head but kept staring. Daniel moved his head to look and saw what he thought was impossible!

_Kirrrr?_

A small, green robot, at least two feet high with large blue, um…eyes? And it was staring up at him, chewing on a piece of straw.

"Andrew, back up," Daniel said softly.

"What is it, Dad?" the boy asked.

"Just give the me flashlight and back away!" Daniel said more loudly. Andrew shoved the flashlight towards his dad and took four steps backwards. The man held out his free hand to the robot, slowly.

"Hey, little guy," he cooed. "What's your name?"

_Pirrr…_

"My name is Daniel," he said, just to keep talking. His hand was now three inches away. The green robot looked at the man and then back to the hand coming closer and closer towards him. He growled playfully and grabbed Daniel's arm and started nibbling on his fingertips.

"Ow! Hey! That hurts!" Daniel screamed. He tried to pull away from the robot's grip, but it was too strong for him. Once the robot was done, it let go and Daniel fell back into the dirt. Ken and Bud stood in front of their master and barked at the green robot. The mechanical creature grunted and beeped, trying to fend off the dogs.

"It's so cute!" Mary said, clinging to her uncle's arm.

"It kinda is!" Andrew said, smiling.

"Having baby problems, bro?" Henry joked. Daniel glared at him.

"Sure, kick me while I'm down," he groaned. He stood up and looked at his hand. It had several teeth marks and some of those spots were bleeding at a minimum. "Mary, get a blanket from your room. Andrew, I need a few Band-Aids."

The brother and sister nodded. They ran into the house to get the supplies. Henry stood next to his brother.

"What is that thing?' he asked, watching it claw at the dogs each time they took a step towards it.

"I have no idea," he said. "It can't be government work."

"We could ask Andrea. Remember her?"

"Yeah, I remember Andrea. Tough girl, that one. But I doubt a simple policewoman would know anything about this."

"But her sister's a mechanic. Maybe she could help a bit!"

"You think that mechanical engineering can and could be related to this?" He pointed at the green robot. Now it was playing with the dogs as they nuzzled it.

"It's a possibility," Henry said, shrugging. Mary came back with a small purple blanket and gave it to her dad. Andrew gave a box of Band-Aids to him as well.

"Good," he said. He handed the blanket to Henry. "Wrap that thing up tight." Henry nodded and bent over to the green robot. He scooped it up like it was his own baby and cradled it as it gave an electronic purr.

"It's cute when you really look at it," he laughed. Daniel gave a snigger and put a small Band-Aid on his pointer finger. He gave the box back to Andrew.

Mary walked up to Henry and stood on her toes to try and sneak a peek at the robot.

"What should we name him?" she said.

"It could be a girl, you know," Andrew objected. Henry took a look at the robot's body.

"Nope!" he said. "Definitely a guy."

"How do you know?" Mary asked.

"Trust me…" Henry groaned.

"Okay, then, _him_. What should we name _him_?" Andrew said. Mary's face lit up as she thought of something.

"How about Beeper!" she said.

"Nah," Daniel grunted. "If he gets lost, I don't feel like saying 'Where's my Beeper?' How about something else?"

"Lime!" Mary said.

"No," said the three-part chorus of guys.

"I'm sort of leaning towards Foster," said Daniel. "You know, 'cause we…kind of adopted him right then."

"I second Foster," Henry agreed.

"The notion has been seconded, how about a third?" Daniel said, looking at his kids.

"Foster!" the kids said in unison. Daniel nodded and took the robot carefully into his arms. It looked up at him with large glowing eyes.

"Pada?" it said.

"For now," Daniel whispered.

xXx

Author's Note: Now this is where we lose control...


	3. Part of the Family

Chapter III

"WWWAAAAAHH! WWWAAAAAHHHH!" Foster kept crying the whole night and didn't even stop in the morning. Henry dragged his feet while walking out of his room to take care of it. He held Foster in his arms and bounced him lightly.

"Go to sleep," he moaned, still tired. "Come on, please!"

"Is that thing still crying?" Andrew said, walking into the room with Mary and rubbing his eyes. "What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know!" Henry whined. "He's been crying all night, I don't know what he wants!"

"Maybe he's…(yawn) hungry," Mary said, rubbing her eyes.

"What do robots eat?"

Mary shrugged and went downstairs to get some breakfast. Daniel walked by the room and looked at Henry as if to say "Shut it up or I will." Henry shook the baby robot some more, but it kept crying. He ran downstairs, seeing Mary covering her ears and Daniel pouring a cup of coffee like it was going to help.

"Hey, bro, do you know what robots eat?" he said.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" his brother groaned. He took a sip of his coffee and covered his ears. "If that thing doesn't shut up, I'll put it back in the barn."

"I don't think the dogs will like that, Dad," Andrew spoke up. He walked over to his uncle and took Foster from his arms. "I have an idea of what it eats."

"Please, tell us!" Daniel grunted.

"Ever watched _The Iron Giant_? What if it eats metal, just like the giant?" Daniel looked at Henry and they just shrugged at each other. Daniel looked back at his son.

"It's worth a shot," he said. Andrew took the robot baby and ran outside to find a piece of metal no one was going to use any time soon. He found a spare crowbar next to the swing set in the backyard and held it up to the baby. Foster quieted down and sniffed at it. He took the bar from Andrew and started chewing on it. At first, he was happy, but then he started chewing a bit slower and his face looked disgusted. He spit out the metal and threw the crowbar away.

"Guess you don't like that kind of metal," Andrew said. He looked around for something else and spotted a large piece of their old pick ax. He grabbed it gave it to the baby. Foster sniffed at it like he did last time and snatched the piece away. He took a large bite out of it and chirped happily. Andrew laughed and took him back inside with the metal still in Foster's mouth.

"Did it work?" Henry asked. Daniel spotted the shard and smiled.

"It likes titanium carbide," he said. "Though I'm not sure if that's his real food or his candy."

"Well, let's see if he gets sick!" Henry laughed. His brother glared at him.

"Would you do that to a _human _baby?" he said. "Remember, we're taking care of it until someone or some_thing _comes along to pick it up. He's only temporary."

"But I wanna keep him!" Mary whined and stomped her foot.

"But why do _we _have to take care of him?" Henry argued, ignoring his niece. Daniel sighed and remembered what his wife said to him before she died. _Take care of the baby. They'll come get it._

"Because it's what Crystal wanted," he responded. He held out his arms so he could take Foster from his son and held him tight to his chest. The baby looked up at him with the last piece of metal sticking out of its mouth and smiled. Daniel smiled back and he laughed.

"It really is cute," he said. Foster reached out a hand and touched the man's nose.

"Pada!" it cheered.

"Either it said 'Papa' or 'Dada'," Henry said.

"It was both, duh," Mary teased. She walked up and stood on her tiptoes to see the baby. It looked at her and did the same to her nose.

"Sis!" he said.

"He knows me!" Mary said excitedly. Andrew walked up to give it a try. Foster repeated the motion.

"Bah!" he said. Andrew shrugged.

"Good enough for me," he said. Henry walked up next to see what Foster would call him. He bent over until he was eye level with him and Foster touched his nose.

"Unc!" he said.

"Short for uncle," Henry laughed.

"Now that we got our name tags on, how about we see if we can teach him to walk," Daniel said. His family agreed and he put the baby towards the ground and let it lightly touch the floor with its feet. Foster wobbled a bit and held out his arms to keep balance. Mary crouched down five feet away and cooed to the baby to walk forward.

"Come here, Foster!" she said. "It's okay, come on!" The green robot brought a foot forward and took a large step towards Mary, keeping his arms out straight. It took its other foot and stepped forward.

"Wah!" He cried as he fell forward onto his face. He pounded the ground and kicked his legs around. Daniel leaned next to him and tried to help him up. He put his hands on both sides of the green baby and put him upright into a sitting position. Foster put his hands to his optics, like tears were actually going to come out.

"Hey, hey, don't cry," Daniel whispered. "Look at me, look at me! Hey." Foster removed his hands and stared up at him with bright blue eyes. "Listen to me, okay?" The baby nodded. "The first time is always the hardest. You'll get better! You just have to practice, okay?"

"Kray," he said in response.

"Good," Daniel sighed. "You wanna try again?"

"Mm-hmm." Foster tried by himself to stand up and held out his arms again. Daniel backed away to let the baby have some space. He took a step forward, and then another slow one, then another, repeating the sequence. Mary's smile got bigger and bigger. Once Foster was within six inches of her, she held out her arms to get ready. In three inches, the robot fell forward into her arms and she lifted him up.

"You did it!" she cheered. Henry took him from her and lifted the baby into the air. Foster held out his arms like he was flying and beeped happily.

_Bee neep, wooopp! Bee neep!_

"Daddy, get the camera!" Mary said. Daniel smiled and went upstairs to find it. He went up to his room and looked around for it. In the drawer next to his bed, he found both the camera and a photo album. He looked through at the last pictures he had developed and couldn't remember when that last happened. He saw a family picture of him, Crystal, Andrew, Mary, and Henry all at the beach. There was a small corner in it that was bare and he knew exactly what to do with it.

He ran back downstairs with both the objects and stood in front of the four waiting for him. He placed the camera on a surface and pointed it so it looked at everyone.

"Alright, we have a timer on this; everybody needs to be ready in twenty seconds. Go!" He ran to get behind his kids and they propped Foster in front of Andrew. He held the baby steady and pointed at the camera, telling him to look. Foster put on his largest smile and waited for the camera flash. The camera beeped once and flashed. The robot cried at the flash and ran around the room. Andrew and Mary chased him while Daniel went to look at the picture; Andrew and Mary looking at a terrified Foster, Daniel looking over to him, and Henry letting go of his smile to flinch at the robot's reaction.

"That's a keeper," Henry said, looking over his brother's shoulder.

"Yeah," Daniel sighed. "Welcome to the family, Foster."

xXx

Author's Note: If you didn't see the picture coming, something's wrong with you...kiddin'... Anyway, I hope this went a little better than I hoped. (Isn't Foster the cutest?!)


	4. The Early Bird

Chapter IV

Foster woke up at about five in the morning but didn't make any sounds. He stepped out of the crib that used to belong to Andrew and scattered around the house. First, he was smart enough to check the rooms to see if everybody was still sleeping. Next, he walked downstairs slowly, one at a time, holding onto the bars of the railing. He stepped into the next room; the living room. He poked the couch and expected something to happen. He poked it again, still nothing. Frustrated, he left the couch and walked over to the television. The robot pressed a single button and the black box turned on and popped open the news channel. Although he had no idea what they were talking about, he heard something about a Michael Jackson death.

He pressed a singe button and the screen flipped. He jumped backwards at the unexpected movement and stared at the box, watching a small part of the movie.

"_AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE! My client lied about her age! She was only 17 when she got married, which makes her a minor. And in the great state of California, no minor can enter into any legal contract without parental consent. Including…?_

"_Prenuptial agreements…_

"_Prenuptial agreements! This contract is void! The fact that my client has been ridden more than Seattle Slew is irrelevant. Standard Community Property applies and she is entitled to half of the marital assets, or $11.395 million. Jordan fades back, swoosh, and THAT'S THE GAME! Nothing further, your Honor._"

He changed the channel.

"_DOES ANYBODY ELSE FEEL LIKE A FRIED EGG?!_"

Click.

"_You sure you put enough coffee in that sugar, Brad?_"

Click.

"_Squidward! Squidward-y-er!_"

Click.

"_Whatever it is, it's gotta get by us!_

"_Right!……Go get her, Ray!_"

Foster moved away from the TV and into the kitchen, still wondering how those guys ended up in the box in the first place.

He waltzed into the kitchen and looked around for something to play with. He opened up a small door under the sink and found the dishwashing supplies. He unscrewed a cap on one and spilled the entire bottle onto the tiled floor. The baby tossed the bottle to the side and grabbed another. He spilled that bottle and threw it across the room. The little green robot climbed up to the top of the sink and turned the knob. He watched curiously as the water poured out. Then, he reached over the sink and grabbed the nozzle, pressed the handle, and aimed at the spilt detergent. He giggled as the soap became foam.

Foster jumped from the sink and into the middle of the foam. He played with it as if it was water and stuck some of it onto his face. He played with it until he became bored and decided to move on to something else.

He crawled over to the pantry and nabbed a can that said "_Chef Boyardee_" on the front. He pounded his hand on the top to see if anything would happen. When it failed, he grabbed a knife laying on the shelf and poked holes on the top of the can. He turned it upside down when he decided that that was enough holes and a red sauce came out. He put his tiny glossa under a drip and let it fall. He brought his glossa back inside his mouth and groaned. The baby spit out the sauce and wiped his mouth.

"Icky!" he said. He made a choice not to come back into the kitchen and made his way to the front door.

Walking outside, Foster was amazed at how green this world was and how the sky didn't have any fluffy white things in there this time. He skipped over to the barn and kicked open the door. The dogs jumped up from their place and walked over to him to sniff him. The green robot gave an automated giggle as Bud and Ken brought their noses around his whole body. Once they were done, they stared at him and Foster's expression changed.

"Coo?" he said. His face turned over to Bud and the dog gave out a singe bark.

"Cah?" Bud gave another bark. "K-Kay!"

The baby robot walked over to a horse stall and eased open the latch. The door creaked open and the brown horse was set free. It nearly trampled over Foster to get outside into the field. He moved on to where the cows were tied up to a bar and unknotted each one. These cows didn't have an intention like the horse to go outside and calmly walked out. Foster walked over to a large cage that held three bunnies inside, all shivering at his presence. He opened the cage door and carefully picked one up at its sides. He followed his "Pada's" example and held the rabbit to his chest as he took his other finger and tried to tickle it. The bunny moved around, not tickled, but frightened. It kicked the green robot in the face and hopped outside, making an escape to the crop field. The robot baby decided not to disturb any more animals, closed the rabbit cage, and walked outside again.

Back in the house, Mary was waken up by the sound of cows mooing and was wondering if she was just dreaming it. She climbed out of bed just to check and scooted over to the window. Outside were the five cows and her favorite horse, Apple Bean.

Panicked, she ran to her brother's room and shook him awake.

"Hey, cut it out!" he groaned. Mary stopped shaking him and waited until he was upright in his bed. "What is it, Mimi?"

"There's someone in the farm!" she whispered. "The cows and Apple Bean are outside!"

"But I thought Uncle Henry tied them all up," Andrew moaned. He rubbed his eyes to get the rest of his sleep out and followed his sister downstairs. She stopped in front of the door and turned to look at him.

"What if he has a gun?" she whimpered. Andrew paused to think and ran upstairs to get their dad and uncle. Mary ran into Henry's room while Andrew jumped up and down on his father's bed to wake him up.

"There's someone in the field!" he shouted. Daniel grunted something his kid couldn't hear and moved out of bed. He put on his black slippers and looked at him.

"What did you say?" he whispered, not able to speak so loud when he first wakes up.

"There's someone out in the farm," Andrew repeated. "He's already let Mimi's horse and all the cows out. Come look!"

Daniel walked downstairs, having Mary and his brother follow them.

"Do you know why they woke us up?" he groaned.

"Andrew says there's some guy on our property," Daniel sighed. "They think he's trying to take our animals." He walked over to the closet under the stairs and grabbed a shotgun and tiptoed outside.

"Be careful, Daddy!" Mary called. Daniel gave her a motion to be quiet and kept walking towards the barn. He held his gun ready and saw that the door was still open and heard clattering inside. The strange this was was that he didn't hear the dogs bark.

"Killed my dogs, eh?" he figured. He whipped around the door and held the gun in front of his face. He expected to see a man in front of him, but all he saw was a tiny green robot stuck in a pile of old used farm tools, and it was chewing on them. Foster looked up at him and smiled.

"You're an early riser, aren't you?" Daniel laughed, walking over to him. He patted the robot's head and it gave a small coo. "If only my kids were like that. Come on, let's get you cleaned up." The robot held out it's arms to be lifted up and Daniel held him in his arms. "And it looks like you've got the walking handled down, too."

"_Klee beep_!"

xXx

Author's Note: The movies/shows I used (if people couldn't recognize them):  
_Liar Liar _featuring Jim Carrey  
_Batmen Forever_ also featuring Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones  
_Home Improvement _with Tim Allen  
_Spongebob Squarepants _with Tom Kenny  
_Ghostbusters _featuring Bill Murray  
**Someone tell me if they knew that before this author's note.**

On another note: Ain't Foster da cutest?! X3


	5. First Day of School

Chapter V

"Andrew, Mary, wake up, it's time for school!" Henry shouted from downstairs. Summer vacation was over and now the kids were getting back to school; Andrew in sixth grade while Mary was going into second. "Rise 'n' shine, first day of school!"

The little daughter must've been the most excited about this, her backpack was already set up and she was downstairs in a flash. As for Andrew, he groaned and dragged his feet downstairs. Six years of school was enough for him.

"I don't wanna go to school," he said.

"Wanna!" Foster said. After a month he had understood all of what people said to him, but he could only _say _a couple of words. Right now he was saying that he wanted to start school with his adoptive siblings.

"No, Foster, you can't go," Daniel said, leaning down to him. The green robot crossed his arms angrily and pouted. "I know, I know, you want to learn."

"M!" the baby grunted.

"But you can't go to school!" he continued. "You still have to stay in this house."

"Why?"

"People aren't used to seeing little robots like you around the town. You have to stay. Why don't you watch some TV?"

"No more Discovery!" Foster screamed. He stomped his foot several times. Daniel put his hands on the baby's arms and held him to see if that would calm him down. Foster glared at him with his blue eyes and kept that image for a while.

"You can't go," his dad said in a calm voice. "That's final."

Foster stuck out his grey glossa and walked away into the living room. Daniel sighed and looked at his son and daughter.

"Get your breakfast. The bus comes at seven," he said. They nodded and ran over to the dinner table. Henry grabbed a large box and took out some pieces of titanium carbide. (Apparently, they really were Foster's actual food.) He gave the bits to the green robot and he took them out of his hands with an angry motion to it.

Ten minutes later, Andrew and Mary slung on their backpacks and waited outside for the bus to come. Henry sighed with relief and plopped down onto the couch.

"Finally, those kids are out of here!" he said. Daniel laughed and called for Foster.

"Foster, come on out!…Foster?"

No answer.

"I don't have time for this. Give me a hug before I go to work, Henry will take care of the farm today and he needs your help, understand?" Again, no answer. "Alright, if you don't hug me now, no alloy for desert!" When he didn't answer, Daniel started to worry.

"That usually gets him," Henry said, a bit worried. "Do you think he's okay?"

His brother shrugged and ran upstairs to the spare room they gave to the robot. He opened the door and saw a lump in the small bed. He removed the covers to find nothing but pillows.

"FOSTER!"

* * *

"I don't ever remember packing so much stuff," Andrew said as he got on the bus and set his pack on the floor. He sat down next to his friend, George, and he looked at the pack.

"Well, what did you pack?" he said.

"Binders with paper, pencils and pens, and a reading book," the boy replied. "But I don't think it was this heavy last night." He unzipped the pack and spotted what he hoped was just a hoax.

"Dude, why's there a robot toy in your backpack?" George said.

"That's not a toy..."

"No toy!" Foster cheered.

"It talks!"

"Shush!" Andrew said to his friend.

"What is that thing?!"

"This is Foster. We found him a month ago in our barn and kept him since."

"What's he doing in your backpack?"

"Shh!" the robot said. "Hiding from Pada."

"That's what he calls my dad," Andrew whispered to George, then to Foster, "You're not supposed to be here! What if someone sees you?"

"I stay here!"

"You're going to stay in backpack, which will be in the locker?" George said.

"What's a locker?"

"A dark place where you'll stay for eight hours if you don't get off at the next stop!" Andrew hissed.

"Wanna go to school!" Foster screamed. Andrew and George told the green baby robot to shush. They both noticed a girl in the seat across staring at them like they were crazy, but they gave a smile in return.

"You're making us look bad!" George said. "That was Stacy Grey, the hottest girl in here!"

"Can you please get out and go? The next stop is here," Andrew growled.

Foster crossed his arms. "No!"

"Please? I'll give you some alloy."

"Wanna go to school. Wanna go to _school_!"

"Be quiet!" George hissed. "Andrew, what are we going to do with him?"

"Well…" It was hard to think inside a smoking hot bus and the pressure was on when he thought about what might happen to Foster if he was seen around the school. "Either you can stay in the locker, or you get off at the other stop."

"Locker!" Foster said without hesitation. Andrew shrugged and zipped up the backpack again. The baby lay inside, chuckling to itself. He said he'd stay in the locker, but didn't say how _long_.

* * *

"Just stay here and be quiet, okay?" Andrew whispered.

The green 'bot nodded and said "Kay!" while giving a thumbs up. The boy nodded and closed his locker, hoping no one was watching. The small robot, on the other hand, felt claustrophobic and realized how truly scared of the dark he was. Even all the noise going on outside made him uncomfortable. For about five or eight minutes he stayed in there, waiting for the sounds to go away. They quieted down, little by little, until a bell rang and no one was in the hallways.

Foster saw this as a chance to escape. He used his telekinesis powers (which he found two weeks ago) to open the locker door and kicked it open, letting the clang ring across the hall. The baby jumped out and landed safely on the cream-colored floor. He looked left and right, like Pada told him when crossing streets, then walked down the hall aimlessly, just to be somewhere besides that scary locker.

There was an open door to one of the classrooms and the notice on the door said "We are in the media center". The baby shrugged, not knowing what a media center was, and walked inside.

"'Ello?" he said, waking inside and staring at all the empty desks. To him, it was like being in the _Twilight Zone_. He found it strange that the desks were arranged so neatly and positioned so they were looking at the big desk in the front and the white board with lots of writing in the back.

He walked to one of the desks and pulled out a book left behind. Holy heck, that thing was heavy! Foster felt that his servos would come off soon if he didn't do anything with it! So he sat it up on the top of the desk and climbed into the seat. He opened the book up to a page labeled "The Revolutionary War" and started reading it. It wasn't that much fun for a while.

"It doesn't have any pictures!" he complained. He froze for a bit, thinking about what he said; a complete sentence. Maybe it was that reading he just did. To test his theory, he read the entire page and moved on to the next. The baby even started taking notes on some of these! His little computerized brain went into gear and he made it to "The Presidency of James Monroe" when he heard the door handle rattle.

"The keys are here somewhere…" said a voice outside the door. Foster closed the book and hid under the large desk that was at the front. The door opened up and about twenty-four kids in eighth grade filled in the seats. The baby heard footsteps behind him and turned to see that the teacher was sitting at her own desk.

_No! Not now!_ he thought. The teacher pounded the desk to get her class to quiet down.

"I want all of you to behave until I get back," she said. "Mrs. Harris wants me in the science lab." With that, she stood up from her desk and walked away. The class started talking again and Foster heard things about "cute boys" and "What are doing for the weekend?" and a repeat of that Michael Jackson death. He scrambled under the desk, trying to get comfortable when he realized he should've kept still. A girl dressed in pink, too much eye liner, and so much powder on her face that she looked like a ghost, spotted the squirming green robot and gasped.

"Oh my God, do you see that?!" she screeched. All forty-eight eyes turned to see what this girl was looking at. Most of them gasped, some nearly screamed, others shrugged and didn't care (which was a very few amount of them). A boy walked forward and the baby flinched when he held his hands out to grab him. Foster brought an arm forward and used his psychic power to push the boy backwards and into the wall.

He jumped from the bottom of the desk and ran out to the hallway where a girl was making her way over to the water fountain and saw him. She followed his movements with her head and stopped when he turned the corner. Foster gave out a long sigh and slumped to the floor. Then, something popped into his head.

"My notes!" he shouted. He raced back to the room and the kids were surprised to se him back here. The baby jumped onto one of the kid's desk and opened the book to where he left his notes. He nabbed the paper and looked at the terrified boy.

"Boo!" the baby said. The boy literally fell backwards in his seat and to the ground. Foster chuckled while the rest of the class laughed out loud. The baby ran back out and tried to find the locker he was stuffed in. He saw an open one and knew that was where he came from. He checked just to be sure and saw his brother's backpack and books. He climbed back in and curdled into a ball. With his brightened optics, he read over his notes just to soak in the information.

At three o' clock, Andrew opened his locker to see Foster re-reading the notes.

"Where'd you get this?" he said, grabbed the paper and reading it. "Even I don't know about this stuff; how'd you get it?"

Foster gave a guilty smile and Andrew laughed.

"You sneak," he said, patting the baby's head. He gave the notes back to his brother. "Now get in the pack." He opened it up for him and Foster jumped in.

"I'm in trouble, aren't I?" said the green robot.

"Yeah, you--Wait, you can talk now?! I mean, not that you couldn't talk before, but--"

"Yep! I was in the eighth grade history room!"

"So that's where you got the notes on the Declaration. Don't skip me in school! That's not fair!"

"I can teach you this if you want. I could help you with your homework!"

Andrew thought about this for only two seconds. A robot who loved to learn, working on your homework.

"All right, deal!"

"YES!"

"Shh!"

"Right." The robot put a small finger to his mouth and smiled. "Shh."

xXx

Author's Note: That make-up girl was to describe how I see the self-absorbed people.  
WE LOVE YOU, FOSTER! MWAH! -w-


	6. Thanksgiving

Chapter VI

For the past two months, Foster was helping both Mary and Andrew with their homework. Not in the 'I'll do it all' kind of way, just better than the actual teachers at their school. By now, Mary already knew long division and Andrew could take a test on the Constitution and ace it. How cool was it to have a robot as a little brother?

Now it was almost Thanksgiving and Daniel still didn't tell his relatives about Foster! They were coming over for the holiday and the green robot was throwing a fit about how he couldn't stay.

"Why can't I?!" he screamed.

"It would be too sudden if they saw you here," Daniel tried to explain. "I don't know what they would do if they saw you. I would have to explain to them before they see you. Or do you want to be taken away from us?"

"But I want to stay at the farm!"

"I understand. In order for that to happen, you need to stay hidden until I come back up and tell you when it's okay to come down."

"It's not fair!" Foster slammed his foot down. The pictures nearly came off the wall and the china was close to tipping over, until Henry caught it and set them back up again.

"Foster, I need you to stay up there, just for an hour or so."

"But I get bored!"

"Play a video game."

"I don't want to!"

"Well, how about Andrew's math book?"

"I already read that."

Daniel stared at his brother as if he had an answer. Henry just shrugged and looked back at Foster.

"You've _read _all of Andrew's math book?"

"And his literature book."

The first thing that popped into Daniel's head was _Is this kid for real? _But then came _He's a miniature computer._

"How about the history book?"

"Half-way through."

"Well, when the relatives come over, go upstairs and read the rest, okay?"

"Okay," Foster said in a whining sort of tone. Daniel patted the robot on the head and stood up.

"Henry, look after the kids," he said. "I need to go to the store and get a turkey. You'll be alright by yourself?"

"I'll play a racecar game with Andrew, Mary will play with her dolls, and Foster, if I know him, will start reading the entire set of World Encyclopedia."

"I'm working on letter M," Foster announced. Henry smiled and raised both his eyebrows while pointing at the robot.

"See?" he said. "He's knows how to stay occupied."

Daniel just sighed. "Fine," he said. "Just keep him in the house. I don't want anyone coming by and calling the police on us. The last thing we need is an interrogation."

"Sure thing," Henry said. "But I'm not tying him up to a chair."

"Didn't want you to." Daniel put on his hat and walked out. "I'll be back in an hour. Don't destroy the house!" With that, he closed the door and drove off with the old Cadillac. Henry turned to the three children staring back at him.

"Anyone wanna play Twister?" Andrew said, holding up the box for it. Mary raised and hand, but Foster didn't bother. His body was too short to play the game. Instead, he walked upstairs to find an encyclopedia or a dictionary to read.

* * *

The next day, Foster did as he was told and stayed upstairs in his room, reading some fiction and non-fiction books (and got a laugh when he found out how off some of the kids' non-fictions were). The family was coming by in about an hour and the Dawsons tried to get everything ready. They had to find some of the scraps of metal left behind by the green robot and some of the toys they gave him and put them in the closet under the stairs. Once they heard an SUV pull up, Mary was by the door to get ready to open it. Foster put down his book to look outside and see his adoptive relatives.

"We're here!" Aunt Gwen sang, posing as she got out of the car. "Oh, I just love this place!"

Her children, Jeremy and Farrell, slowly got out of the backseat, feeling embarrassed by their mom. Mary opened up the door and ran to her cousins. She opened up her arms to wait for her "annual hug", or so she called it. She only saw her cousins a few times each year, but Jeremy was the one afraid of cooties and wouldn't give her a hug. So Farrell was the nice one and gave her a hug.

"Daniel, darling!" said Gwen. "How's my favorite brother-in-law?" Daniel laughed and gave her a hug.

"Yeah, I'm you're _only_ brother-in-law," he chuckled. Gwen gave a slight "oh" and turned to her brother.

"Hey, little bro. Whoa! Guess I can't call you little, huh?" she said, giving Henry a hug as well. He was probably a foot or more taller than her.

"And I can't call you big."

"Good, that means the exercise program's working. Mary, Andrew!" Henry pondered about the first sentence and figured out the lame joke behind it. Gwen walked over to her niece and nephew in her high heels to give them a hug. Since they were small to her, she bent down in an uncomfortable way and hugged both of them.

"How are my little dears?" she said.

"Fine," Andrew answered simply. "Where's Uncle Ned?"

"He couldn't be here today, sweetie, I'm sorry," she said with a puppy-dog look. Andrew bowed his head. Uncle Ned was a great guy, like those who thought they were still seven. One of the things he liked about Uncle Ned was that he could serve as a barrier between him and his fairly annoying aunt.

"So, how's school so far?" she asked them. "Don't answer that, kids always give me the same answer. Daniel?" She turned to her brother-in-law. "How are the kids doing at school?"

"I'll give you the report cards. You'll be amazed."

"They failed?!"

"No! Half the grades are A+, the others A or B+."

Gwen's eyebrows raised towards the kids. "Really?"

Mary and Andrew nodded their heads fast, not saying anything (especially about their 'private tutor'). Gwen shrugged to accept the fact and walked inside, not caring if she was invited in or not.

As for Foster, he couldn't believe how much cover-up the lady had on and the clothes she picked for a place like a farm. Comparing it to how her kids and the Dawsons were dressed, she was a city girl who was very, _very _lost.

"So, anything interesting happening around here?" she said, looking at the house. She looked at if as if it were a piece of trash. Then muttered to herself "You'll find more joy in a graveyard than in here…"

"Well, nothing, so far," Henry said, not very good at acting. "We, uh, we have a couple of games the kids could play. We got Twister, Sorry, Candyland, Monopoly--"

"Do you have Fast and Furious?"

"Huh?"

"It's a video game."

"We don't have a Playstation," Andrew said, now remembering how spoiled these kids were. "Either you can play a board game, or you can sit around and read a book." He looked as he saw something in the corner of his eye and spotted a large piece of an old farm tool, titanium carbide. How could they have missed that?! He looked back at his cousins. Henry spotted Andrew's motion and quickly picked up the metal and stuffed it under the couch.

"Seriously?" Farrell said. "Is that all you do around here?"

"You want to pet the bunnies?" Mary said, thinking of something.

"Bunnies are for sissies," Jeremy snapped. "How about riding a horse?" He looked to one of his uncles. "Can we, Uncle Daniel?"

"Uh, sure," he said. He whispered to Gwen. "Can they ride a horse?"

"Just let them try."

"Is that a no?"

"That was a 'let them try'."

"Come on, J," Farrell said, walking out with Andrew and Mary. "Let show these hicks how it's done in New York City."

"Do they have farms in New York?" Mary whispered to her brother.

"No," Andrew chuckled, having an idea of what was going to happen. They walked out to the barn and there were three horses tied up to a pole. Bud and Ken were sitting by the wall and watched as the two new kids came in. Instead of coming up to them, they sat still and wagged their tails.

"Can I ride that one?" Farrell said, pointing to a brownish-gold one.

"No!" Mary shouted walking to the horse. "Apple Bean's mine!"

"You two can ride Shakespeare and Jackson," Andrew said. "Mary, you can get on your horse and teach them the ropes."

"We know how to ride a horse, stupid!" Farrell talked back. "It's a dumb animal. What can it do to us?"

At that moment, the brown horse, Jackson, whipped around and almost bit the boy's hand. Farrell backed away and his relatives started laughing. Even the dogs seemed to laugh. He looked over at Jeremy.

"What are you laughing at, pinhead?" he growled. Jeremy quickly closed his mouth and the little Dawsons did the same. "I'm gonna break this horse."

Andrew took the saddle form the ground and fastened it onto Jackson. Obviously, Farrell was up to the challenge. He could tell Jackson didn't appreciate this boy's tone and would probably throw him off his back. He laughed.

"Don't be too rough, all right?" he whispered. Jackson nickered and threw his head back once. Andrew gave another chuckle. "Be nice." Jackson gave a slight grunt and looked over at the black-haired boy who was frowning back. "Just don't kill him. All right, Jeremy, you're getting on Shakespeare."

Jeremy just stuck out his tongue and crossed his arms. Andrew sighed and fixed the saddle on Shakespeare.

"Do you guys know how to get on?" he said with a half-smile.

"Of course we do!" Farrell said. He took his steps towards Jackson's right side and put his left foot on the stirrup.

"That's good, if you want to ride him backwards," Mary laughed. "Look, I'll show you how it's done." She did the same, except she put her _right _foot on the stirrup and swung her left foot over the horse's back. She took hold of the reigns and her golden-brown horse took a step back. "Now try it. Do it with the right foot."

Farrell scoffed and switched his foots, doing the same that Mary did. The only difference was that it took him several times to get flexible enough to bring his entire leg over the horse.

"Good," she said, sitting proudly on her horse, feeling a little more superior when she saw how wrong her cousins were about riding a horse. "Now you try it, Jeremy."

The blonde-haired boy walked towards the still black horse and mounted up on him with ease. He gave a look to his brother as if to rub it in his face.

"Perfect!" said Andrew. "Now, if you want to go, you don't slap the reigns like they do in movies. You have to nudge them with your foot at the same time. That's how our horses are trained. Now turn your eyes to my lovely assistant and she'll show you. Mary?"

Mary nodded and smiled at her brother's silliness. She kicked Apple Bean on the right side with partial strength and pulled the reigns to the right. Apple Bean did as he was told and moved right. She kept him going in circles so Andrew could give the next instruction.

"Pull the reigns back hard when you want to stop him. If they throw their head back, they're trying to resist you. Sometimes the horses get a little tense with new people."

* * *

Foster sat up in his room, reading his books. He heard a few laughs and angry shouts outside and gave a look. He saw the Dawsons and their cousins riding the horses. But Andrew wasn't mounted up on one. He was sitting on the wooden fence, watching. He knew how the boy wanted a horse all his own, like Mary. But Apple Bean was too small for him and he said he would be patient until Henry and Daniel gathered enough money to get a horse for him. Andrew may have been in sixth grade, but he understood a lot, with the help of the robot or not.

The baby was getting bored just sitting up in his room, doing nothing but reading and watching the kids trot around on their horses. He saw Farrell get off once or twice and each time he walked funny. Andrew always said "Whenever you get off a horse, you feel like you'll never walk the same again." But he saw how that would wear off in just under ten minutes.

"So, what's upstairs?" he heard a voice say behind the door. Aunt Gwen.

"Nothing but the bathroom and our rooms," Henry said.

"What about this one?" The doorknob started to turn and Foster began to panic.

"NO!" Daniel and Henry both shouted, but were too late. Gwen opened the door to Foster's room and looked around. Daniel and Henry took a peek as well.

"There's nothing here but a bunch of books and a bed!" she said. Sure enough, Foster wasn't anywhere to be seen. She walked back downstairs, leaving her brothers to the room. They walked inside and whispered.

"Foster? Where are ya buddy?" Henry said.

"Right here!" Foster whimpered.

"Where?"

"Right here! Right in front of you!"

Foster started to appear at Henry's foot and he took a step back.

"What happened?" Henry said, bending down to him.

"I got scared," the green robot said, having a sad look on his face. Daniel and Henry looked at each other then back at Foster.

"You can change color?"

He shrugged. "I guess."

"Well, try it!"

"Uh, hmm…" Foster closed his eyes and kept even breaths (so to speak). From the feet up, his body began to disappear. The only thing you could see was an outline. Sort of like seeing a bulky figure that could blend.

"Good thing I panicked, huh?" Foster giggled, turning back.

"Thank God," Daniel sighed. "Just stay here a bit longer, alright? I'm not sure how Gwen would take this."

"She'd freak, call the cops, they might put her in a straight jacket," Foster laughed.

"This is what he gets from reading books," Henry said, rubbing the robot's head. Foster smiled and went back to the window to watch the others.

"Daniel!" Gwen shouted form downstairs. "You didn't cook your turkey yet?! What's wrong with you!"

"I better get down there," Daniel sighed. "Foster, don't come out until I say 'and this is him', okay?"

"M-hm!" the robot nodded, not looking at him. Daniel raised an eyebrow and gave him the test he always gave his kids.

"What did I just say?"

"Don't come down until you say 'and this is him'."

"Good. Just making sure if you were listening."

"DANIEL!" Gwen screamed, hitting a couple of high notes.

* * *

Jeremy was having a blast riding Shakespeare and the black horse was getting used to the boy as well. Once Jeremy was tired enough, he felt a little flicker of respect and let Andrew ride. The brown-haired boy rode the horse with ease and trotted around the fields. Jeremy occupied himself and looked back at the house. He noticed something in the window, but it disappeared when he rubbed his eyes and took a second glance. He stared at the dark window for while and thought there might've been a ghost in the room.

"Hey, what'cha looking at?" Ferrell said, coming up with his horse. Jeremy looked back at him, then to the window again.

"I thought I saw something."

"Eh, we'll check it out later. Hyah!" He slapped the reigns and kicked the horse, letting it run. Jeremy kept looking at the window until Gwen called them in.

"You-hoo!" she sang. "Dinner time!"

"Mary, Andrew, get inside and get some grub!" Daniel said, showing his own way of calling his kids in for their meal. Gwen looked at him as if he were alien.

"Some _grub_?" she scoffed. "Food is not bugs."

"But there are some bugs that are edible," Daniel grinned.

"Eww!" the woman said in her most disgusted tone. "Jeremy, Farrell, get off those nasty things and get in here!"

"Thanks for letting us ride," Farrell said, getting off. Every time he played with his cousins, his spoiled side ran off somewhere else and he became respectful. "We can do it again tomorrow, right?"

"If your mama lets you," Mary said, taking the reigns. "Andrew, go get Shakespeare before he gets the cows."

Andrew nodded and ran off, grabbed the black horse's reigns, and both children walked towards the barn to tie them up. The dogs came up to him and nudged the boy. He gave them a slight pat and tied up both Shakespeare and Jackson while Mary ran off to the house.

"Good job, boys," he said to the horses. They snorted to accept the comment. Andrew smiled and grabbed a can of dog food. He opened it with a large knife and poured the can out in the giant dog bowl. The huskies ran up to it and gobbled it down. The boy cleaned the knife with a cloth hanging off the table and put the dog food in the nearby trash can. He walked out of the barn and locked it.

* * *

"So, how was the turkey?" Henry asked after wiping his mouth. Gwen patted her napkin to her mouth and set it back down neatly.

"It was fine," she said, shrugging. "Jeremy, that piece is done already!"

The boy was trying to chew off the last bits of the turkey slice, down to the bone. He obeyed his mother's hidden demand and put down the turkey.

"Uh, Gwen, boys?" Daniel said, getting up. "We have a, uh, small announcement." He moved his head towards the stairs to tell his kids to get Foster. Mary and Andrew nodded and ran upstairs to get him ready. "Well, during the summer, we, um…we sort of adopted someone we'd like you to meet."

"And you had the poor dear locked up?!" Gwen screeched.

"Don't worry, he's fine," Daniel said, raising a hand to silence her. "The reason we didn't tell you before was because we didn't want you to get scared."

"Why would we get scared?" Farrell said.

"Shush, honey," Gwen said. "Don't interrupt."

"Well, he's not exactly from here…He's not even form Earth." He looked at all three confused and interested faces. "His name is Foster, he's an alien robot, and this is him." He moved his hand to get everyone to look at the stairs. They spotted a small green robot standing with his hands behind his back, at the bottom of the steps.

"Oh…my…Lord," Gwen sighed.

"Hi," Foster said shyly. "What's your name?"

"Call the cops!" she shouted, getting up and reaching for the phone. Henry held her back in front of it. She pounded on him to get him out of the way.

"Now, Sissy, calm down!" he said. She ignored him and pushed him away. She dialed the number.

"Hello, cops? I'm at one twenty-three, Hendrickson Road and--Hey!" Henry grabbed the phone from his sister and put it back. "What was that for?! Don't you want to get rid of this-this…_thing_?!"

"This _thing _is a living being that we _have _to take care of!" Daniel argued. Mary and Andrew stood by the robot to protect and to calm him.

"And who said you have to?!"

"Crystal!"

"_Crystal_? Ha! That girl couldn't tie her own shoes!"

"Listen, you hag! I'm fed up with you and your bullshit!"

"Daddy?" Mary sighed, wondering why her dad had cursed.

"Mimi, stay still." He turned back to Gwen. "I want you to leave this house and don't come back until you have more respect for your family. And that includes the child!"

"That is no child, that's a monster," Gwen growled. She grabbed her kids tightly by the arms. "Come, you two. We're going back to New York."

"But Andrew promised we could ride the horses again!" Jeremy whined.

"Screw those filthy things!" Gwen slammed the door and drove off in her flashy SUV. The Dawsons stood outside the door to watch her go. Foster ran further, picked up a rock, and threw it in the car's direction, hitting the bumper.

"That's for my dad!" he shouted. He picked up two more rocks and threw them at the car. "That's for my brother and sister and this-" He activated his power. "-is for you!" He brought his hands forward to direct the force and the car sped up about twenty more miles. "And never come back!"

In the moment, a siren was heard down the long and empty road. Daniel called Foster back in so he could talk. The police car pulled up and an African-American woman got out of the driver's seat.

"Andrea!" Henry said with a wide smile. "Thank God! I thought you'd be someone else!"

"Like who, Bruckner?" she laughed. "Nah, they sent me because I know this area better. What's the problem?"

"Sorry to tell you Andrea, but," Daniel explained, "that was Gwen, my sister-in-law, on the line. She was freaking out when…Well, you'll have to see for yourself." He motioned for her to come in and she did. She looked around the house to see toys scattered, dirty plates on the table, and chairs pushed out.

"Looks like your family was in a hurry," she said, inspecting a bit.

"Here's the reason they left," Henry said, picking up Foster from behind the couch. Andrea stared with widened eyes at the robot. "This here's Foster. He's the guy that was on the news last July; the object from space."

Foster waved at the lady. Andrea smiled and waved back.

"He's so tiny!" she cooed. "Where'd you find him?"

"In the barn," Henry continued. "He might've crawled in there since we didn't see any holes in the roof."

"Is he smart?"

"Pssh! Is he ever!" Andrew said. "This guy could get into college by now!"

"Well, he _is _robot," Andrea muttered. "Does he speak?"

"Incredibly so, Miss Steele!" Foster said, jumping from Henry's arms. Andrea jumped at the unexpected movement and laughed. He walked up to her, grabbed the back of her hand, and kissed it lightly. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Pleasure to meet you too, Foster," she giggled. "How old are you again?"

"Not even half of a year."

"Amazing! If only all children were like you."

Foster smiled and gave a bow.

"Uh, Andrea?" Daniel said. The policewoman acknowledged him and turned. "I need you to promise not to tell anybody.

"Afraid he'll get taken away and used as an experiment," Andrea sighed, using it more as a fact than a question. "I understand. I won't be as 'noble' as Gwen was." She looked down at Foster. "But I look forward to seeing you again soon!"

"Same here!" Foster chirped. "Have a nice day!"

"You too, cutie." She patted his head. "See you guys later."

"Bye, Andrea!" Mary and Andrew said in synch. The woman waved good-bye and drove off to tell her boss it was a false alarm. Daniel sighed and fell back into the seat at the dinner table.

"Thank God that's settled," he said, rubbing his head.

xXx

Author's Note: Isn't Aunt Gwen a bitch or what?


	7. Henry's Birthday

Chapter VII

"Okay, he's spending way too much time in the barn," Andrew said. "What the heck is he even doing in there?"

"He's said he's making my birthday present," Henry answered. His birthday was located on the calendar at smack dab December 1st. Foster had spent most of his time home in the barn. He was hardly seen unless it was time to eat. Other than that, it was like he ran away. Mary once stood by the door in front of the barn and heard all kinds of drills, power tools, electronic beeping, and things clattering to the floor.

"Wonder what kind of present it is," Daniel said. "Any guesses?"

Nothing. Everybody shrugged as if it was practiced and looked at each other. The front door opened and Foster came in with dirt and grease all over him.

"Foster!" Mary said, about to give him a hug. She stopped when Foster held up his hand. "What are you doing in that barn?"

"Like I've told you the past week; making Uncle Henry's birthday present," the green 'bot answered. He wiped some of the grease off his face. "Sorry that it's taking so long, its just that each time I fix it, a new bug comes in."

"So it's electronic?" Henry said, also trying to figure out the present.

"Eh, half and half," the baby answered simply.

"Well, we need to go to the store and get some more groceries," David said, putting on his parka. "Andrea's coming over when her shift's done so she can keep an eye on you. We'll be back in an hour."

"Okay," Foster said. Daniel sighed and told his kids to get their jackets on. After a few times of trying to un-jam the zipper, the kids had their coats on and were ready to walk out. The family waved good-bye to Foster and Mary gave him a little kiss on his metal cheek. Foster smiled and gave her a kiss back. Mary giggled and ran outside to get in the silver '97 Cadillac.

With nothing more to do, Foster walked back out in the snow and to the barn. He closed the door and went back to his "work station". In front of him was a baseball sliced in half and nearly filled with electronic gadgets. He inspected it to make sure everything was in place and screwed the baseball back up so it looked like any other baseball. He jumped down from the desk and over to the dogs. Some electronic barks came from his mouth and barks from Ken replied. The grey husky stood up and walked over to another machine Foster had set up. It looked like an arm on a pole, holding a baseball bat.

"Not until I give the signal, okay?" he said. Ken barked once and waited with his paw ready to push the button on the base. "Test number forty-three." He winded up the ball and threw it. "NOW!"

Ken pressed the button and the bat curved to swing. It missed the ball and hit the barn door. It rolled itself back to Ken and the dog whimpered.

"Still some bugs," Foster groaned.

* * *

Andrew was feeling kind of strange, getting all those batteries. He knew he had to get them (Foster ate the lead inside) but he was always thinking that people were murmuring "Why do they buy so many batteries?" and the same deal with kitchen knifes and bullets. He put the six packs of batteries in the cart.

"Any more?" he said.

"We have a little extra money," Daniel said. "You can get yourself something both you and your sister would use. Meet us at line five."

"Okay," Andrew replied. He walked off to the toy aisle. "Come on, Mimi." Mary followed close behind. They took a few turns and tried to follow all the signs to the store.

"We need to get a map of this place," Mary said, afraid to get lost. She looked above to find the toy aisle. She was sure she found it when she spotted a sign with a toy construction vehicle on it. "There!" she pointed. Andrew smiled, glad to get out of the maze, and ran towards the aisle.

"Let's see, Dad said to get something we would _both _use," Andrew said. "So no Barbie dolls."

"And no G.I. Joe action figures," Mary snapped back. She skipped down the aisle to look for something fun that both girl and boy could use, but everything was so diverse when it came to toys.

Andrew walked slowly down the aisle with his hands in his pockets, looking left and right so he wouldn't miss a single toy. He spotted one he thought he and Mary could use, but he wanted to be sure. He ran back to her and held it in front of the girl.

"How about these?" he said.

"Walkie-talkies?" she said.

"Yeah, it'll be fun! It could be a different kind of hide-and-seek."

"Okay!"

He laughed at how quickly his sister said yes and ran back to the front of the store, looking for the logo they usually displayed over there. They found it and ran straight forward to the line Daniel and Henry were in.

"Walkie-talkies, huh?" Henry said, picking it up from Andrew's hands. "You might have to share with me."

"No!" Mary said, taking the box back and hugging it to her chest. "These are for kids!"

"Andrea uses walkie-talkies, too, you know."

He had her beat. She gave the plastic box back to him and he placed it on the conveyor belt. Once everything was back in the cart and into the car, Andrew grabbed the walkie-talkies and opened them up, giving one to Mary. They gave a little test just for fun and laughed.

They were stuck in traffic when they heard someone had an accident. The whole road had been blocked. Mary started to worry about Foster, so Daniel made a phone call and put it on speaker. Andrea picked up.

"_Hello?_"

"Hey, Andrea, it's me, Daniel."

"_Hi! Foster's getting a little wound up. He says he's hungry. What does he eat again?_"

"If there's any spare batteries in the fridge, he'll eat those. But the main meals are bullets and farm tools. Anyway, that's not why I called."

"_Oh? What's wrong?_"

"We're stuck in traffic. We might be here for a long time. Do you have to work or anything?"

"_Not until six in the morning. And don't worry, I'll take care of him._

"_Is that Dad on the phone? Lemme talk to him!_" Foster grabbed the phone. "_Hi, Dad!_"

"Hey, buddy! You holding up okay?"

"_We let the dogs in; it started snowing in there. There's a hole about the size of Henry's big head in the roof._"

"You're on speaker, Foster," Henry said in the passenger seat.

"_Oh. My bad. Sorry about the big head crack. When are you guys coming home?_"

"Late. Very late," Daniel answered. "There was an accident on Greene's. We could be here for hours."

"_I'll be fine_."

"Good. Put Andrea back on."

Rustling was heard on the phone and a faint "For you!" by Foster as he gave the phone back to the policewoman.

"_Yeah?_"

"If we don't get back soon, he goes to bed at eight. Books back on the shelf and Discovery and the History Channel off. Okay?"

"_Got it! See you guys later._"

"BYE, ANDREA!" came the chorus of the Dawsons as Daniel turned it off. There was a long silence until a static sound came from Andrew's walkie-talkie.

"Andrew, shut it off."

"Hold on." Andrew put his ear near the device and Mary looked at him curiously. "I can hear something. Mary, listen." He handed his speakerphone to her and she put her ear towards it.

"There's someone talking!" she said.

"Probably just someone else with a talkie on the same channel," Henry said, being logical.

"But it doesn't sound like a person."

"Give me that." Andrew took it back and held it in his hand. He stood still for a few minutes with Daniel an Henry looking at him from the front. "There's two talking. Here, listen." He turned up the volume and the droning increased. There were a few sonic whines and groans and a couple of clicking sounds thrown in there. "Hear it? Voices."

"Not human," Mary whimpered.

"I don't even think it's organic," Andrew sighed.

"It's probably picking up something," Daniel said.

"Yeah, an alien signal!"

"That can't be an alien," Henry argued.

"But what about the time where we thought and alien was in our barn and turned out to be Foster? This could be his parents looking for him!"

"Andrew!" Daniel interrupted. "That thing is just picking up a cell phone or something. It's just noise."

"It's voices!"

"Andrew, don't argue with me! Just turn it off."

"No." He kept his gaze on his father and let the static continue. There was only one word clear; prime. "Listen. You know how someone with a different language still pronounce our names the same way as we do? Someone who goes by Prime is looking for Foster--"

"Andrew--"

"And he's coming to get him back!"

"Andrew--"

"He'll be back with his family!"

"ANDREW!" Daniel shouted. The brown-haired boy kept still and his father lowered his voice. "Turn off the walkie-talkie."

Andrew did as he was told and shut it off. The static stopped so quickly that it hurt his ears to hear the silence.

"How about some music?" Henry said, reaching for the radio.

* * *

It was ten twenty at night when they came back home and Andrea was sitting on the couch, watching the news. There seemed to be the same kind of thing happening to others' cell phones, baby monitors and several other kinds of devices that where picking up the same static Andrew received.

"He's up in his bed. I checked to see if he was still sneaking a peek at his books," Andrea reported. A few times, Henry had gone up to find the room light off but Foster's glowing eyes wide open, reading a book. "He's a really good kid."

"He's not mine," Daniel answered.

"But you gave him a chance to live. You could've called the cops yourselves and been done with him." There was a small silence and Daniel sighed.

"You're right," he said. "Thanks for taking care of him."

"Well, I hope to do it again sometime," she smiled. She gave him a pat on the shoulder and stepped out. "Oh, and Henry? I gave you a little something for your birthday tomorrow. Good bye!"

"Thanks, Andrea!" Henry called as she walked out. He looked at the wrapped box on the dinner table. He decided to leave it there for tomorrow and walked up the steps, having Mary and Andrew follow him to their own rooms. Mary sneaked by them and quietly walked into foster's room. He was sleeping, making a few whirring noises as he slept. The girl leaned over the bed and sat down on the edge. It woke him up and she looked at his blue and tired optics.

"Mimi?" he groaned.

"Sorry to wake you up," she said. The bottom of his eyes curved to indicate he was smiling.

"You made it home!" he sad softly.

"Yeah, and there's something I need to tell you…On the way here, Andrew picked up something on his walkie-talkie. He said it could be your real parents."

Foster's eyes became wide and he sat up in his bed.

"Really?" he said, becoming more interested.

"Some other people have gotten the same thing. Andrew heard a word in there and said someone named Prime was involved. Sound familiar?"

"I've been on Earth since I could remember and that's not a long time," Foster answered softly. "If this 'Prime' is my dad, I want to know why he threw me away like this. Why didn't he keep me?" He stopped for a bit. "Well, I'm sort of glad he left me."

"Why?"

"If he didn't leave me, I wouldn't have met you guys," he smiled. Mary giggled and smiled back. She put his arms around his neck and he wrapped his around her back.

"Thanks, Foster," she said. "For everything."

"You're welcome…(sniff)"

Mary pulled herself back. Foster took one of his hands and wiped his face.

"Are you crying?" she said.

"I'm not sure," he said shakily. "I'm a machine, I'm not supposed to produce tears; I don't have tear ducts. But why am I, in a way? I thought humans did that when they were sad."

"You only read part of that. Humans cry when they're happy, too."

"How am I supposed to tell the difference?"

"You'll just know." She gave him a kiss on his forehead. "Good night, bro."

"'Night, Mimi."

* * *

In the morning, Foster woke up early to finish the rest of his present. Daniel went to go pick up the cake, leaving Henry alone with the kids. Foster walked off to the barn and Bud was the next to help test the baseball.

"Test number fifty-seven," he recited. "Pull!" He threw the baseball and the dog pressed the base button. The balls swerved a bit and the bat hit it dead center, letting it fly back towards the ceiling behind Foster and almost hit Jackson in the head. The horse reared up at the sudden movement. The green robot took hold of the brown horse's rope and held him still.

"It works!" he cheered. He got a steel bat and replaced it with the wooden one on the stimulated arm. "Now, let's see if it locks onto more than one bat." He picked up the baseball and told Bud to get ready. "Test number fifty-seven point five. Pull!" He threw the ball, the dog pressed the button, and the ball was knocked out of the roof. Foster used his telekinesis to bring it back and it came through the wall, causing another hole.

"I guess I'm fixing those," he said. He held the ball up. "Well, I'll do that after Uncle Henry's birthday. He's gonna love this!" Bud and Ken ran up to him and sniffed him. "Oh, right." He pulled out two dog biscuits from subspace and gave each to the dogs. They looked back at him for more. "After your dinners, okay? I gotta get back to the house." The dogs started whining. "Ah, suck it up. You guys are tough! You can't get spoiled." The dogs nudged him again. "Or maybe you can…"

He heard a car pull up in the snow-covered driveway and ran out of the barn. Daniel was grabbing a cake out of the backseat.

"Lemme help!" the robot said. He took the cake from his dad's hands and walked inside with him.

"I'm home!" Daniel said. Henry ran up, seeing his cake.

"Whoa, vanilla icing?" he said.

"With a chocolate center," Daniel smiled.

"Thanks, bro!" He gave him a man-hug and took the cake from Foster's hands to put it on the dinner table.

After a few hours, Foster came in, giving a single note and Henry already knew what was coming.

"_Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!_" Mary, Andrew, Daniel and Foster singing. "_Happy birthday, dear Daniel. Happy birthday toooooo…_"

"_Youuuuu!_" Foster sang, making the note sharper, but it was perfect even so. Henry clapped and laughed at their performance.

"And we hope you never change!" Mary said, hugging her uncle. Henry gave a little "aww" and hugged her back.

"Thanks, guys," he said. "Andrew, Foster, get in here." Foster ran up and sat on Henry's leg to give him a hug. "Andrew?"

"Pass."

"Andrew," the chorus of three whined.

Andrew scoffed and hugged his uncle. "Better?"

"Yep! You're good." The three kids let go of him and ran to the presents they had for him. "Oh, they're for me?" he said in a playfully sarcastic tone. "I never would've guessed." Mary was the first to give a present. He ripped it open and found an empty photo album. He thanked his niece and gave her another hug. Henry opened Andrew's next and got a baseball bat signed by Babe Ruth.

"How in heck did you get this?!" he said.

"My friend's dad," Andrew smiled. "He didn't want it anymore; he has a baseball version."

He gave his uncle a hug and let him open the next present by Daniel. It was set of power tools that he could use to fix up the car in the backyard. Henry's car broke down some years ago and didn't bother to tend to it. Then came Foster's present. The green robot held a small wrapped ball to him and Henry studied it.

"Aw, come on, we're not saving the paper. Just rip it up!" the robot shouted excitedly. Henry laughed and followed the order. He tore open the paper and found the ball.

"A baseball?" he said.

"A pimped out baseball."

"How's it pimped out?"

"Come outside and I'll show you. Bring the bat!" He led them outside after they got their coats on. Henry held his bat ready in hand and Foster stood several feet away.

"No matter what happens, swing!" Foster yelled. Henry nodded and held the bat ready with his arms in the right position as well as his feet. Foster threw ball and Henry saw how clearly that ball would miss. Then he saw it curve and had no choice but to swing. The ball cracked against the bat and was sent into the air. Foster shot up in the air and caught it.

"That thing _is _pimped out," Henry gasped. "It's a rigged ball!"

"Exactly!" Foster said, coming back.

"But…How--how did you do it?"

"The hardest part was cutting it open…with a butter knife! It's fitted in with a navigation system so it can lock onto any bat it's thrown at."

"That's amazing! We won't use it for a real game, right?"

"No, that'd be cheating. It stays at home and only home."

"Great. Just making sure."

"Did you open Andrea's present yet?"

"Snap!" Henry ran back inside to tear open his final gift.

xXx

Author's Note: A) Yes, Foster speaks dog. B) Coolest present ever! C) the radio is what you think...and D) Andrea's present is a cliff hanger.


	8. Christmas Miracle

Before this one starts, you all have to get into a Christmas spirit first! So sing a Christmas song before you read and feel that time of the year! (It's close anyway, so you might as well try)

.

Chapter VIII

It was that one brilliant time of the year again, the day parents dreaded most when it came to their children wanting more and more; Christmas. It was like every little thing that popped up on television, the kid wanted it but would cast it away after three or four days of playing with it. Andrew and Mary were different in a way. They would watch the commercial, then think if they would actually play with it. Now that they would think about this, most toys were just plain boring.

"Uncle Henry?" Foster asked, tugging the jean pants. "What's Christmas?"

"You want something that's not from the book, huh?"

"Mm-hm."

"Well, how do I explain it? It's really explained as a time of giving and a time of miracles. It's to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ."

"What kind of miracles?"

"Uh…Well, I read in a book once about a man who was going over to see his family for Christmas. He knew how much it would mean to them, especially since his aunt was in the hospital. He took a plane over to Montana, but a snowstorm kicked in and there was no visibility beyond two inches. The radio was out and they couldn't contact the tower at the airport."

"Whoa! Really? What did they do?"

"The man started praying to God to help him get through this. Soon, a voice was heard on the radio, giving them directions back to the station. Once they made it, the man got off to find the man who was supposed to have given them instructions.

"He said, 'Thank you, sir, for saving us.'

"But the man said, 'What are you talking about? The radio was dead.'"

Foster's eyes were wide. "But how was the radio out when they clearly heard someone on there? That's illogical!"

"Not all things are logical, Foster. That was one of God's angels on the radio."

The green robot pondered this for a while. How could that even be possible? There was no proof that God or Heaven existed, let alone His angels. It had to be out of luck they landed! But, if luck existed, why not miracles?

"Are you kidding me, Mimi?" Andrew said in the living room. "Who would use a blow-up exercise ball at this time of the year?"

Foster walked over to his brother and sister to find out what they were talking about. On the television was a man trapped inside a giant plastic ball filled with air. He was rolling around with it like he was in a hamster ball and was even walking across water with it. It looked like a ton of fun!

"But what if it gets to summer again?" Mary argued. "Don't you want to try it out on the lake?"

"Then we'll get it for your birthday in spring."

Mary gave a huff and crossed her arms. She didn't like waiting so much, it usually made her go insane. Foster looked at the ball on the television commercial. That thing looked kind of pointless, but then it seemed fun.

"So, Dad," Andrew said, turning around to look at him, "what are you getting me for Christmas?"

"I can't tell you, remember?" he said. "It's gotta be a surprise."

"We'll still _act _surprised!" Mary answered. That was always an excuse when it came to gifts. Foster sighed and walked upstairs to his room. Christmas seemed like a holiday filled with all kinds of fake hope; or at least that was what his mind was telling him. Thinking that there might've bee something more to this Christmas thing, he grabbed one of his dictionaries to look up the holiday.

_Christmas-- 1.__**festival celebrating birth of Jesus Christ**__: A Christian festival marking the birth of Jesus Christ. December 25th__._

Pretty much what Henry said…

_2. __**quarter day**__:__in England, Wales, and Ireland, one of the four quarter days, falling on December 25 _

Still no help, but whatever this day was, it was predictably going to be like any other.

* * *

Henry and Daniel were on top of the roof, hanging up Christmas lights, while Mary and Andrew played with the dogs. Foster just sat in the snow, brushing his hands across it, and thinking about Christmas. There was something about an overweight man coming down people's chimneys to give the kids presents. Why would he give them presents anyway? Would he get burned if the chimney was still lit? And there was no possible way a man and some little people could survive the cold on the top of the world.

"Hey, Foster!" Mary called as she ran up. "Wanna bake some cookies for Santa later?"

"Pass."

"Come on, tomorrow's Christmas! We have to bake cookies for Santa!"

"Why do you think he's so fat in the first place?"

Mary was surprised at the tone in the small robot's voice. "I don' like your attitude, little mister."

Foster sighed and stood up. Right in front of her, he blended into his surroundings and walked right passed her while she was figuring out what had happened to him. The sparkling rushed off into the corn fields and hid himself in there for a long time. Once he stopped, his curled up into a ball and started to cry. He read from another source that Christmas was a time to spend with your family. Each time he saw the Dawsons, he saw them as a true family. But then he looked at himself and saw a young kid who was rejected by his own. Why didn't his family want him anymore? Was there something wrong with him? The baby sobbed out loud and looked up at the white sky dripping down small pellets of frozen rain.

"_Why didn't you want me_?!" he shouted. Purple tears ran down the side and fell down to the white ground. There had to be a reason his own kind had left him here. If it was an accident, and they knew he was missing, wouldn't they have found him by now?

* * *

"Foster! This isn't funny anymore!" Andrew called out.

"Foster! Where are ya, buddy?" Henry shouted. Both of them had been looking for Foster since he left and it had been about an hour. It was too cold outside, even for the little robot. Night was coming soon and they had to find him before the snow killed him.

"Come on, man, it's freezing cold out here! It's time go back inside!"

"Foster!"

Half a mile into the corn stalks, the green robot heard the calls, but didn't dare to move. In fact, he couldn't. His heating system had shut down due to an unseen malfunction. His body color was shifting quickly from lime green to a royal blue, and his eyes blue to orange, as the cold affected his ability as well. Since the freeze was getting to him, he couldn't even call out for them to come get him. Trying to find a loud enough sound (that he recorded in his processor), he turned it on to a song by the Trans Siberian Orchestra called _Carol of the Bells_. Once a specific point of the song came in, he turned it up for them to hear it.

"He's over here!" Henry shouted. Andrew followed him into the middle of the field to find the little blue robot. "He looks terrible!"

"Hey, buddy." Andrew kneeled next to his little brother and put a hand on his back. Foster felt like he was at absolute zero and kept shivering to get his heating system back up. A small sneeze escaped as he leaned towards his big brother's chest. "You'll be okay."

Henry leaned over to take Foster and wrap a blanket around him. Foster grabbed onto the man's parka and searched for the required warmth.

"Don't worry, Foster," he whispered. "You'll be okay."

_Scrae noch ta…Shirk lish scrae…_

* * *

They placed Foster on the couch and kept two electric blankets on him. Mary stood by him, holding his hand, as David was trying to think if Henry's idea of an anti-virus might work. Andrew was gathering up some of the regular metals for Foster and watched as his color began shifting very steadily back to green with calm blue optics. By now he could only say a few words. Others would trail off and never be heard.

"Feeling better?" Mary asked.

"Mm…"

"You scared me, you know."

"So…rry…"

"It's okay." She leaned over to give him a kiss on the forehead. "Just don't do that again." Mary wrapped her arms around the small robot. "I thought you were gonna be gone for good."

"Can we…make those cookies now?" he sighed. Mary giggled as she saw the apology in him and nodded her head.

"Once you're better."

* * *

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" Mary ran into her uncle's room and jumped on top of his bed to wake him up. Henry groaned and rolled around to see if he could ignore her that way, but it was useless. "It's Christmas! Wake up, sleepy!" She started shaking his arm.

"All right, all right…" he moaned. He slowly sat up in his bed as Mary ran to her brother's room. Andrew shot out of bed and raced down to the stairs as Mary walked over to the next room and her dad said to give him a few more minutes. The girl obeyed and went over to Foster's room.

"I'm up! I'm up!" Foster said so she wouldn't bug him like she did her family. The child grinned.

"Then come on! Let's go! Let's see what you got from Santa!"

"Nah, I told everyone I didn't want anything."

"Oh well! More for me!" She ran down the stairs, followed by two slow-moving adults. Foster zipped by them and saw the few wrapped boxes under the brightly decorated, small pine tree.

"No one opens presents until we get our coffee; that's the rule around here," Daniel instructed. Mary and Andrew kept shaking with excitement and had their hands ready on their chosen presents. Andrew shook it a little to try and figure out his while Mary was looking for some sort of hole to peek through. Foster laughed as he sat on the couch and watched the two play around with their boxes.

"Can we open them now?" Andrew said as he noticed that both Henry and Daniel had taken at least one sip of their drinks.

"Camera first, remember?" Daniel grunted. Mary groaned with anticipation and Andrew bit his lip. Daniel walked to the nearest drawer and pulled out a silver digital camera. "Alright, sic 'em!"

The two kids obeyed more quickly than the words came out of his mouth and paper started flying in all directions. Mary got a Barbie doll, some clothes for it, a coloring book, some paint, and a small tiara. Andrew pulled out a G.I. Joe figure, a fake rifle, a target for that, and his uncle's old tool set.

"Andrew, there's a surprise outside for you," Daniel smiled. The boy's eyes lit up as he raced over to the stair closet to get his coat. The Dawsons followed him outside as he looked around for his present.

"Where is it?" he asked.

"Check the barn," Henry smiled. Andrew ran at lightening speed towards the barn and swung it open to find four horses. Yes, four.

"You guys got me a horse!" he cheered. Mary giggled with excitement to see her older brother happy. He already grabbed the reins and saddle and fixed them onto his horse.

"Wait a second! What's his name?" Andrew asked.

"Whatever you wanna call him," Daniel said.

"Quincy-Adams."

"Perfect."

Andrew's smile became wider as he jumped onto his horse. He made it trot around the barn for a while to test out how the horse had to be handled. Quincy-Adams was already trained a bit, but he needed to work on knowing to turn when Andrew said to.

"Thank you so much, Dad!" he said, getting off. Henry offered to tie up the horse as they got back inside. Mary started playing with her new doll and looked under the tree.

"We missed one," she said. Deep down in there was a silver box, and she reached to take it out. She looked at the label and tried to figure out who it was for. "I can't read this." She handed it to Foster. The sparkling looked at the other edges to inspect it and read the label.

"Some kind of Egyptian-Arabic-Chinese kind of hieroglyphics," he conjectured. "It's kind of tough, since all three cultures seem to be here. Uh…Hmm, I think it says 'For the brightest spark in the world'. Wonder what it is…"

The box started to shake and slowly opened up. Inside was a small grey ball. The green robot lifted it out of the box and watched as a blue light formed inside.

"What is that?" Andrew gasped. Foster tried out a small theory and focused some energy into the ball. It started to glow even brighter as the flow rushed into it.

"It harnesses energy," Foster hypothesized. "Since I'm still too young, whenever I can't control my power, this thing helps. Or at least that's what I believe."

"Well, that's great and all, but I still have one question," Henry spoke out.

"What?"

"Where is it from?"

Foster didn't have an idea in his head. At first, he thought it might be from one of the Dawsons, and that they were playing dumb, but he had never seen technology like this on Earth before. A strange little thought entered his mind and a large smile opened on his face.

"_THEY CARE_!" he shouted, jumping up and down.

"Who?" Daniel asked.

"My parents! They sent this!" He hugged the ball close to his chest plate. "I love Christmas!"

xXx

Author's Note: Who's got a wide smile on their face right now? ;)


	9. Valentine's Day

Chapter IX

February twelfth, two more days until Valentine's Day. Another holiday Foster would never understand, but for the heck of it, he participated. He helped Mary decorate some of her valentines and kept teasing Andrew after he found a picture of some girl in his math class hidden in his backpack. The boy's face had turned blood-red and Foster swore he could see grey steam coming from his ears. Andrew chased him around the house a few times but lost him once Foster had blended into the living room. He threatened to trample over him with Quincy-Adams one day and stomped back up to his room.

At some point before Valentine's, Foster found a small bag of Tootsie Rolls and inspected a piece. He unwrapped it and bit off a small portion. After a short while, the chocolate started to stick to the inside of his mouth. He kept chewing and smacking to try and get it inside his mouth, but that candy would _not _go down. He grabbed a toothpick from the cabinet and started scraping the chocolate out of his insides. He climbed up to the mirror next to the television to check and see if he missed any.

Henry walked down the stairs and grabbed his coat off the back of the chair near the dining room table and noticed the green robot picking the candy out of his teeth.

"Ow! Dang it!" the robot groaned. Henry walked closer to the sparkling, watching him scrape the chocolate mush out.

"Everything okay?" he spoke up.

"WHOA!" Foster fell off the chair he was standing on and landed into Henry's arms. "Nice catch."

"Thanks. What are you doing?"

"Trying to get this junk out of my mouth. So sticky!" He put the toothpick in his mouth again to try it another time. Henry laughed and set him on the ground. "You're gonna have to brush your teeth," he advised. Foster stomped his foot on the ground and pouted in Henry's direction.

"I don't wanna!" he whined.

"If you want that stuff out of your mouth, you'll have to brush them good. Hey, if you don't wanna get it out, fine. It'll be stuck there for a while until you brush."

Foster stood there, staring at Henry with a toothpick in his mouth. The man could hear a bit of whirrs inside the young robot's head as he tried to make out another way besides brushing to get the Tootsie Roll out.

"You win," he grumbled. Henry smirked as he walked back to the dining room table and picked up a small box. Foster stared at it for a while. "What's that?"

"Nothing!" Henry said, almost in a surprise. He hid the box from Foster's sight as the green robot started pointing and laughing.

"Henry's got a girlfriend! Henry's got a girlfriend!" he sang. Henry shushed him down to try and explain things.

"She's not a girlfriend…yet. I've sort of got a crush on her and I was planning on telling her Valentine's Day."

"What's her name?"

"You'll laugh."

"Please?" Foster got down on his little knees and clasped his hands together. "I won't tell anybody! I promise! Just tell me who she is. It'll be a long-kept secret, okay?"

Henry looked around to see if anyone else was nearby. Once he saw that the coast was clear, he knelt down to Foster and whispered the name into his ear. The green sparkling's optics grew huge and looked at Henry.

"You're in love with _Andrea_?!" he shouted. Henry shushed him again.

"You can't tell anybody!"

Foster motioned two fingers across his mouth to zip them up and mumbled. Henry smiled and said thanks as he walked out the door. Foster jumped around and squealed.

"Henry's loves Andrea! Henry loves Andrea," he sang softly to himself. He skipped up the steps to the bathroom to try and brush out the Tootsie Roll.

* * *

The next day, Daniel had to go work and Henry was busy going to the hospital since he heard that Gwen had been in a drunk driving accident. Though she was a pain, she was still his sister. Andrea had to come over and baby-sit again. Andrew showed her his new horse and Mary convinced her to play with the dolls. Foster felt a little left out and spent some time with the dogs in the barn. He spent the whole day hidden inside the barn and was called back inside when dinner was ready.

In the morning, Andrea took the kids back to school, since Daniel was still at work and Henry was making a long trip back from New York. Foster laid in the barn, petting the dogs and eventually fell asleep. The dogs kept him warm by nuzzling next to him and standing guard in front of him.

On the bus, Andrew started talking to his friend and picking through some of the valentines. None of them were ones actually meant for anybody, but Andrew kept looking for a perfect one to give his crush. While he and George were searching, they found the walkie-talkie.

"What the heck is this doing in here?" George asked as he picked it up.

"A walkie-talkie me and Mary got. Something freaky happened with it last time we turned it on."

"Like what?"

"Just some funky noises. It sounded like two robots talking to each other, but it was sonic-like. You know, a bunch of high-pitched sounds?"

"Really? Turn it on! Let's see if there's another!"

Andrew turned on the walkie-talkie and listened. For a while there was no sound, and when George finally agreed to turn it off, a small trilling sound came in. The voice started making other sounds and even sounded like it was laughing every now and then.

"I don't like that," Andrew gasped.

"Why not?"

"The last one didn't sound _anything_ like this."

* * *

Foster was still asleep in the barn when Daniel and Henry made it back home. They put him under a small blanket and walked back inside to get something to eat.

"How long do you think he might be here?" Henry asked. "Few minutes? A month, year, forever?"

"I know for a fact that it won't be forever," Daniel corrected. "Crystal said that they would come back for him, and I believe her. Our job right now is to take care of him until that happens."

"You know, sometimes I even feel like he really _is _a family member."

"Because that's what he became."

Henry didn't have any time to reply to that when the television flickered a bit, erasing the news from the box and a static screen came to replace it.

"Man, the TV's fried!" Henry complained. Daniel knew it wasn't what Henry believed when he heard the sound hidden in the screen. He told his brother to listen closely and they both heard the electronic voice. It stopped short and the news was back on, continuing its report on a jail break.

Inside the barn, Foster's shell changed color to grey and his eyes deepened into a red as he snapped them open and looked around. He growled for a bit and stood up. Ben and Ken whimpered at seeing the sparkling's face change as it was from confused to angry.

"Imbecilic organics!" the sparkling snarled. His voice was deep and didn't belong to him. He shot a small ball of black energy towards one of the huskies. Ben was sent back towards the wall with a broken leg, and his friend trotted up to comfort him. Both the dogs flinched as Foster blew down the door with that same energy and walked outside. He groaned as he saw the sun stand out against the snow-grey sky and gave out a few words in a different language.

A car drove up to the property. It was some salesman trying to market some rifles he believed most farmers had used. He spotted the little grey robot and gasped as he got out of the car and rubbed his eyes to see if it was true.

"Hey, what are you!" he shouted. Foster looked over in his direction and glared. The man took a step back and grabbed one of his selling rifles from the back seat and pointed it at Foster. "I'll shoot!"

A smirk molded onto Foster's face and he held out a hand to shoot another dark ball of power at the man. The salesman jumped to the left, making the ball hit the car instead.

Back inside the house, Daniel and Henry ran out to see a car on fire and a man laying down on the dirt ground. None of them spotted Foster running into the snow-covered field of corn. Henry helped the man up while Daniel ran back in to get his rifle.

"Hey, you okay?" Henry asked him. "What happened?"

"Some grey…_thing _just shot at me! It was a silver robot!"

"How big was it?" Daniel asked as he came out and loaded his rifle.

"A--About two feet, maybe three?"

Henry looked back up at his brother. "Ain't Foster green?"

"This can't be good," Daniel groaned. He walked into the barn to get one of the dogs, but saw that not one of them was up for the job. Instead, he ran into the fields himself with just his rifle in hand.

"Foster!" he called out. He found his trail of small, round footprints and followed them. Daniel followed them for about half of a minute until he saw a burst of black energy shoot into the sky. The man memorized the spot and ran towards it. His destination turned out to be a newly created crop circle and a small purple robot standing in the middle of it. He held up his gun and watched Foster turn around to look at him.

Henry entered the scene and saw the maniacal robot smiling at them both.

"Get the orb," Daniel instructed. Henry didn't hesitate and ran back towards the house. "Foster! What are you doing?!"

"Is that the name you gave this Autobot?" the sparkling smirked. Daniel automatically knew this wasn't the fast-learning kid he knew, but something that was controlling him. "Humans… So simple-minded."

"Are you his dad?"

"His male caretaker? No, not at all. Just the one who wants to offline him. Who are you?"

"His temporary parent. Now let him go or I'll shoot!"

The dark voice inside Foster roared with laughter and smiled back at him wickedly.

"You really think Earth gunmetal can penetrate Cybertronian armor?" he chuckled. "This sparkling _eats_ it, for Primus' sake!"

"Let go of my son!"

"_Your son_!" he laughed some more. "Tell me, human, what is your name?"

"Tell me yours first!"

"My name…is Megatron."

"I'm Daniel J. Dawson."

Henry came back at the edge of the crop circle and held the orb to Daniel. The man with the gun ordered his brother to give it to Foster. At first, Henry was terrified to even try, but he had to it for the small robot. He ran at full speed, attempting to dodge the attacks given to him. One charred his arm a bit, but he was able to escape everything else. Foster yelled out as Henry shoved the ball into his hands. The orb glowed blue, then pink, then violet as it absorbed the dark energy given to Foster and transferred it into itself. The young sparkling fell to the ground as his color changed back and passed out. Daniel lowered his gun and looked at the child carefully as Henry lifted him up gently into his arms.

"What happened to him?" Henry gasped.

"Possession, like those ghost movies" Daniel answered. "Someone else other than his parents wants him. We've got to make sure we don't give them the satisfaction of thinking of us as weak. Now, come on. There's a man I gotta talk to about a good rifle."

xXx

Author's Note: And that's where the plot begins... If some of you think you've figured out Foster's power, keep thinking! Oh, and Daniel's middle name is Jason.


	10. Spring Break

Random question, but has anyone ever noticed I don't cuss a lot in my stories? You don't have to cuss to make the story good. (If only someone told that to the guy who made _Catcher in the Rye..._)

.

Chapter X

For two weeks, Foster laid sleeping in his bed. His optics never opened since his little incident before Valentine's Day. Mary visited his room everyday and Henry was able to feed him by gently forcing down some small amounts of metal at a time into his mouth.

He washed it down into the sparkling's tank with some oil.

"He gonna be okay?" Andrew choked, trying not to cry.

"He'll be fine, Andrew," Daniel assured him. "Just give him some time."

"It's almost spring break, and we were going to Florida! Do you think we might be able to take him while he's still sleeping?"

"And have him panic when he wakes up?" Henry asked. "Remember the last time, back in July when he first got him? When he cried we couldn't shut him up! It was terrible!"

"He's more mature than you think," Daniel replied. "But I won't carry him on a plane to Florida while he's sleeping. He might be a smart kid, but I won't just take him down the coast and not even have him know about it. It doesn't seem right."

"I just hope he wakes up soon," Mary sobbed. "I miss him."

Henry sighed and stood up after feeding the baby robot. He walked out of the room and put the bowl of chopped up batteries on the counter. He rubbed his head with his hand and looked as if he was hurting. Daniel followed him downstairs, leaving the two kids up with the robot and tried to comfort his brother.

"You alright?" he said.

"What did that thing tell you? The guy inside Foster?" Henry choked.

"He said he's someone who wanted to kill Foster's parents. Or his father, at least. And he even told me his name: Megatron. That sounds a menacing enough title to me, how about you?"

"Heh, yeah…" Henry chuckled weakly. "So someone wants Foster, and he wants his dad dead. I know we're able to get him out of Foster's body, but I got a feeling this ain't it."

"You too, huh?"

Inside Foster's room, Mary sat on the edge of the robot's bed and watched as he breathed evenly in his quiet sleep. Andrew stood above them and watched as well. They didn't like hearing the fact that someone wanted to take Foster away so violently. He was just a kid…a super-computer kid.

"Foster?" Mary whispered, knowing she wasn't going to get an answer. "I know you can hear me in there. I want you to come back. I miss you so much." She leaned over and gave him a small kiss on his forehead. Andrew took a step forward, making Mary move over a bit so he could sit down.

"I know this sounds like as if this is a funeral, but I want to say thanks to you anyway. You know, thanks for helping me with my homework, thanks for making my life a whole lot interesting, and thanks for being my little brother."

"You…mean it…?" the small robot mumbled. He slowly opened his optics and turned his head to look at them. A smile was shown and made Mary cry with joy. She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Ah! Not so hard!"

"Sorry…" Mary gave him another kiss on his cheek. "Ooh, it's so good to have you back!"

"Really?…What…What happened to me?"

"Let's not discuss that right now," Andrew advised. "Right now, I've gotta tell Dad and Uncle Henry that you're alive! Dad! Henry! He's up!"

The two men of the farm ran up the steps faster like they were being shot from behind and looked to see Foster's smiling face.

"Pada!" he screeched.

Like Daniel had promised a long time ago, all of them got on a plane on the weekend to go and rent a temporary house in Florida. Henry picked out the place; a beach house on an area that hardly anyone wandered towards. They would be in solitude for a while and enjoy the warm sun of the south. But on the way there, Foster didn't appreciate being put through the luggage area rather than sit up with the Dawsons. He was glad he downloaded some DVD's before this happened. For a while, he was stuck watching _Taken_ and _Safe Harbor_ until he finally heard the plane land.

They drove over to the beach house and were handed the keys by the landlord. Mary

walked into her room and unzipped the small bag that fitted her little brother. He bent backwards a little and felt a few joints crack.

"It's so cramped in there!" he complained. "Can we go make some sandcastles now?"

"We have to unload our stuff first and put it up," Mary explained. To be perfectly honest, she didn't like the idea herself. To speed the process, Foster offered to help.

"Next time, I'm sitting in the seat with my camouflage on," he groaned. Daniel laughed at the comment and handed him a medium-sized bag filled with the robot's favorites and closed the trunk.

"Alright, let me lay down some rules here," Daniel announced once everyone was in the same room with their swimming clothes on. "One: no one goes anywhere without me or Henry knowing. Two: No one goes towards that little patch they call a forest over at the edge. I don't feel like calling the police first thing on vacation. Three: if we say it's time to come out of the water, it's time to come out of the water, no questions, no complaints. And four: this is a fun zone, not a whine zone. Understood?"

"Yes, Dad!" the three kids said. Foster raised up his hands as if he was in school.

"Yes, Foster?" Daniel grinned.

"I can't go in the water," he groaned. It took Daniel a while to figure out what he meant, then the thought hit him. Salt water might have a bad effect on the sparkling.

"Uh…if Henry's up for it, you two can make some sandcastles, or, better yet, you can bury him from shoulder to ankle in sand."

"I'll bury him!" Foster cheered. Henry gave out a sarcastic whine and led the small 'bot outside to get started. Mary and Andrew ran out into the water and started splashing each other, getting some of the salty water into their mouths. Foster started building up some sand on Henry's body, and, for the fun of it, Daniel pitched in with the burial.

Not one of them noticed as Mary snuck off to the forest to get some twigs they could stick into Henry's sand-covered body, and spent some time wandering around, picking up small twigs. Once she believed she had enough, she turned around only to find out that she was lost.

"Daddy?" she whimpered. Now she was thinking about how she just disobeyed her father and was paying for it. Did they even know she was missing yet? It had only been a while. She had a dream about this when she was a about five years old; lost in the woods and had no idea how to get back. Somewhere in the woods was that monster that was after her and wouldn't stop until he had her. That nightmare was about to come true. She heard a small sound and it made her jump.

"Andrew?" she called out. "This isn't funny!" She heard an electronic laugh and started to cry.

"Aww, the creature's leaking!" said a voice. She didn't like how it sounded and the fact that she couldn't see it.

"She's just coming out of her sparkling cycles! She's weak!" said another. Mary looked around and saw two different lights in the darkness behind the trees. One being grey and the other red, both looking like glowing glasses.

"Wait a second…She's the brat of that Daniel guy the boss told us about!"

"Really? I thought she looked kinda familiar…"

"Where's the kid, twerp!" he shouted to Mary. The girl flinched and kept her hands near her eyes to wipe her tears. "Aw, great, now she's leakin' even more!" The shape came out of hiding, along with his brother and pointed a gun towards her. "Let's do this professionally. Where's the sparkling of Prime?"

Mary screeched, making the two 'bots audios rattle inside their heads.

"She's tryin' ta blow us up!" the red one shouted. Mary stopped screaming and ran into the opposite direction. She didn't care where she was going, as long it was away from these things.

"Freeze, meat bag!" the blue yelled. Mary ran through the trees and finally made it back to the beach. It had to be some kind of luck, or God really loved her right now. She saw Henry already out of his sand prison and looking at the ones who were chasing his niece. Daniel ran back into the house to start his target practice with his new gun as his brother and son grabbed Mary out of the way and let Foster fight the two 'bots. They were taller than Henry and the Dawsons wondered if he was able to beat them.

"There he is!" the red shouted. He jumped forward to pounce and grab Foster, but the green 'bot jumped up and shot a blue ball of energy at his back. His brother tried next and caught the small sparkling in his hands. Foster struggled to be let go, but he was too strong for him.

"Lemme go, crap head!" the small robot yelled.

"Name's Rumble, ya little brat!" he shouted back. "I think ya owe my brother an apology."

"I owe him nothing! You both are going down for charges of trespassing and near kidnapping! And scaring my sister!"

"HA HA! Did ya hear him, Frenzy?" Rumble laughed. The red mech stood up and spit out the sand, also laughing in the process.

"Sister, huh?" Frenzy chuckled. "Look at 'em! Do they _look _like they're related to you? Frag, _we're _more related to ya than those freaks!"

"Shut up!"

"But then, that would make this job easy. Sad truth, you're an Autobot. Shame…" Rumble continued.

"What the heck are you talking about?"

Both the brothers looked at him widened optics.

"You _seriously _don't know?" Frenzy emphasized. Not another word came out when Daniel cocked his gun and shot the red mech in the shoulder, right into a soft joint. He turned around and snarled at the human.

"You want him, come get me first!" Daniel yelled, cocking his gun, aiming, and shot. Frenzy held up his arm to block it and ran straight for him. "Oh, shit…"

Henry tried to buy some time by putting his body in front of Frenzy, but the red mech pushed him away as if he were a rag doll.

"He's like a mini, red Hulk!" Andrew shouted as he led Mary back towards he ocean. He knew that if any one of them tried to follow, they would short-circuit. But right now, their target wasn't them, it was Foster, and now it switched over to Daniel just to beat him up for shooting one in the back.

Daniel ran back into the house and up the stairs. He locked himself into his room and hid under the bed with his rifle ready. Frenzy busted down the door and walked around for a while, trying to figure out where he was.

"Marco…" he sang. "Mar-co…"

Daniel tried to soften his breathing so the intruder wouldn't hear, but the slightest sound could be caught by the enhanced system of the robot. Frenzy bent down and looked to see the terrified human.

"Polo!" Daniel shouted as he shot the mech. Frenzy jumped back and rolled on the floor, holding his face.

"Ya shot me in the eye!" he screamed. Purple fluid ran from his optic as Daniel scrambled out from the bed and ran back downstairs to reload his gun. Frenzy was about to chase after him, but he picked up a small signal coming from another room. Curious, he stood up and walked over to where the signal came from; in Foster's room.

"Let's see what the twerp's got…" he chuckled. He threw some objects to the ground, tore open some drawers, and ripped some sheets to look for the signal's source. It ended up being in the closet and he picked through it. He spotted a box on the top shelf above the bar that hung some of Mary's clothes and took it down.

_Hurry it up, bro! _Rumble shouted through his com-link. _This kid's a squirm-er!_

"Hold on a second," Frenzy replied as he opened the box. "Hey, remember that thing that Megatron said took him out when he was inside the little tike?"

_Yeah, some freaky ball, why? Ah! Hold still…!_

"I think I found it."

He remembered some of Megatron's ideas, and one of them included taking the Autobot sparkling's orb to absorb as much power as possible that would be enough to take down Prime and possibly track down the All Spark. But even though Frenzy would hand it in personally, he would still not get the respect he hoped for the last million years from the silver commander. Still, it was best to hand it in rather than to come back to him empty handed, right?

"Hey, riddle me this, bro; what's better, Prime's kid or the power ball? I can't pick," he continued.

_My guess is why not get _both_! Maybe the guys wouldn't treat us so bad anymore if we did double time!_

Outside the house, Foster was scrambling in Rumble's hands to get free. He had heard the conversation, even on Frenzy's side, and kept wiggling. Since the blue mech wouldn't let him go, Foster's body started turning red and his optics bright yellow. Rumble felt the heat of the sparkling rise to a very dangerous level and let go of him.

"Don't you dare touch me!" the little fireball growled. From his hands shot bursts of flames and nearly torched Rumble's derma-plating.

"Ow! Quit it!" the cassette groaned.

"It's _supposed_ to hurt; it's a butt kickin' !" Foster screamed. The fire turned blue with the increasing heat and turned parts of Rumble's body a dark navy color.

"Forget the kid, Frenz, the sphere's better!" he shouted through his com-link. Frenzy obeyed his brother and ran out the door, Daniel trying to shoot at any weak point he could find. The twins ran off back into the woods, making Foster realize what they've taken.

"HEY! Gimme back my Christmas present!" he shouted as he used his blaze to fly after them. Since he couldn't go straight into the forest, he flew over it and scanned the ground to see the running brothers.

_That's kid's a menace! _he heard Frenzy gasp.

_You're telling me. Prime's mate must be a hardcore glitch if he's like this! What did the boss say her name was again?_

_I think her name's Shift._

_Why the spark do they call her that?_

_Uh…If I remember it right, she sorta adapts into what's around her. And I think the brat just soaked up the good sunshine._

_SCRAP, HE'S OVER US!_

Foster saw through his scanners the twins look up at him and start running again. Trying to push the thought of figuring out his powers, the red 'bot flew downwards and went into a freefall when he turned off his fire. The robot's color changed back to green as he tackled Frenzy to the ground. He started punching him in the face and grabbed his little blue orb once the red mech let go. Foster ran back in the direction the beach was with Rumble fixing to run after him. The cassette was stopped by his brother putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Forget him!" the red 'bot groaned. "Punishment from Megatron sounds like heaven compared ta this!" He ran off in the other direction. Rumble took one last look at the little green robot before he went to go follow him.

Foster came back to the beach and everyone started crowing around him to make sure he was okay.

"They could've killed you!" Andrew emphasized.

"Did they hurt you?" Mary whined.

Foster shook his head and looked at the ball. He saw something flicker inside of it and concentrated. The Dawsons had no idea what he was doing, but he looked pretty engrossed into it.

"I'm going up to my room," he said. "Don't bug me, please." And before anyone could say anything, the sparkling ran inside the house and up the stairs. He closed the door and locked it to make sure that the Dawsons would follow his instructions. He placed the glittering orb on top of his bed and he sat crisscrossed in front of it. He put his hands just an inch away from the smooth top and closed his eyes to focus.

What Foster saw amazed and scared him. He saw the face of the one who took over his body on that cold, February morning, and saw some of his followers. They were all so huge! Standing next to Megatron was a red-colored mech with jet wings and he looked at the grey commander as if he wanted to strangle him. From Foster's point of view (which was basically Frenzy's), he looked up to see a large, royal blue mech towering above him. His face was completely covered and it looked pretty creepy not seeing someone's face, no matter what anyone told you.

This blue mech and Megatron were talking about Prime again and about his child. Foster quickly came to the conclusion that _he _was the child of Prime and these people only wanted him for ransom. Then he started talking about the orb having an ability to harness and save power. They would use it to take down Prime forever.

The green robot tried using the orb in his hands to probe further into Frenzy's mind to learn more of what was going on between Megatron and his father. It was a little difficult to hack, but he soon got the hang of it and found some records of a four million year old war. _Four million? _These two wouldn't quit! For Megatron, he wanted everything he saw and the ability to command it. As for Prime, which changed into _Optimus _Prime once the data was received, he would try anything to crash the Decepticon's dream. Both had their own armies and both hated each other more than words could say.

Foster opened his eyes and looked at the orb. He thought about what he saw and retrieved, then he came up with a small theory. Since the orb had collected Frenzy's memory, when he touched it, could it possibly collect some of Foster's that happened before he came to the Dawson's?

Anxious to try it, he put his hands on the orb and focused his energy into it. But because he used so much of that energy to fight off the twins, his body felt limp and he wasn't sure if he should continue.

"C'mon! C'mon!" he groaned. The ball glowed brightly and almost blinded him. The energy inside him wiped out like a cloth and he fell to the side. Taking in some breaths, he tried to sit up again. The thought of gaining the knowledge what happened when his father left him kept Foster going and he put one of his hands on the orb and closed his eyes again.

He rewound his head to search for the memory. One flash; Henry's birthday. Second flash; firing energon balls at Aunt Gwen's car. Third flash; first time he saw watched TV.

_Almost there! _he screamed inside his head. _C'mon! Dad! Where are you?_

All his attempts to get to that desired memory, his head started to pound with the beat of his spark. Soon, he felt the pulse surge through his whole body. Each time he tried to go into the time before the Dawsons, it would jump back to seeing Ben and Ken sniffing him and trying to figure out what was intruding the property.

Nothing.

The memories weren't there.

His dad made sure of it.

Author's Note: Since this seems to work when I do this, I'll ask some questions and you can answer to them.

Who would NEVER put that cute little sparkling in a luggage compartment?Like the Marco Polo game Daniel and Frenzy played? Hee hee. POLO! BLAM!If you're mad at Prime for erasing his own son's memories, he's got good reason for it! And, no, it's not just to save Foster from the D-cons, there's more to 's curious if that's even Foster's real name? O.O

Yes, I know that Optimus' mate is actually Elita-1, but I wanted Foster inherit an ability so I made an OC. To clear it up, whatever's around Foster, he can blend into, and he can suck up the element that's the most. Like Pennsylvannia's winter snow (last chapter) and Florida's sun. But let me tell you, down here in Jax, we've been getting some rain. It's the _Sunshine State_, crappit! And we were getting poured down like it's the Exodus!


	11. Summer Sleepover

Chapter XI

Summer vacation was here. Andrew was excited to leave school, but Mary wasn't all that thrilled. She actually liked going to school. Over the summer she hardly spoke to her friends because they were away so much. Foster didn't like them leaving their schools either. Andrew and Mary usually brought home some new books from the library that was on the way from the bus stop to the house. He read a couple of things like _Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea_, _The Invisible Man_, _Oliver Twist_, and _Gulliver's Travel's_. Foster was a sucker for the classics.

Andrew asked his dad millions of times if he could have George spend the night one time. George himself had been asking that question, so Andrew just passed it along. But Daniel's answer was always the same.

"We can't risk Foster being seen," he said.

"But George has already seen him!" Andrew would say back.

"I mean when his parents come to pick him up. They'll know something!"

"You're just paranoid because of those two robots back in Florida!" Andrew, like always, stomped up the stairs to his room and Foster would be at the top, sitting on the bar, listening to the conversation. He didn't take too fond of his dad's argument, either. George had kept him a secret for months now, what made this any different? Ever since Rumble and Frenzy had attacked them two months ago, Daniel had been acting strange and was about to place Foster under house arrest just for protection.

The green robot shifted his color to blend in as he walked down the stairs. He didn't want to know that his father could tell he was up there, and came to his side. The only flaw in this was that, when Daniel looked down, he could still see the sparkling's shadow. Foster noticed how Daniel had looked directly at him and began to run off into the kitchen.

"Foster!" Daniel shouted. The green baby ran on top of the island in the kitchen and accidentally rammed into the flour, making the bag rip apart and the powder fall on him, making his body a little more visible. "Foster, wait!"

Foster didn't want to listen and ran out to the back of the barn where Bud and Kenny were hooked up. Foster, knowing how to speak canine, told them too be quiet as he hosed himself down with the water hose and dried himself off by soaking in that summer sun and evaporating whatever liquid was left on him. Daniel ran outside and saw both huskies looking at him and the puddle of water left next to them. Why did this kid have to be a chameleon?

"Foster, wherever you are, I'm sorry," he started out. He kept looking around as if the child was going to somehow magically reappear before his eyes. "It's just that…I've already lost a member of the family, I don't want to lose another."

Amazingly so, Foster didn't know what Daniel was talking about. He didn't know about Crystal Dawson, the sweet, kind-hearted, honey-smooth wife of Daniel's and mother of Andrew and Mary. But curious to know, he walked back inside the house, still incognito.

Feeling as though something in Daniel's room would help, he started looking through it. He scanned the top shelves of his closet, dug through a couple of drawers, and then he found it. The old photo album. It was marked 2000-2007, the years. Foster opened it up to the first page. The earliest one he noticed was one of Mary, when she was just a year old, going through her first birthday. Andrew was two and standing ext to his sister, just eyeing that birthday cake in front of him. On the other side of Mary was Daniel, smiling and holding his baby girl. Foster didn't know Mary was actually that adorable, but it was nice to know what she looked like nine years ago. The caption under said** Our Girl's Second Birthday**.

He turned the page, skipping some photos, and looked at another where the kids were now three years older and standing in front of a waterfall, on top of a wooden observation point. There was a woman with light brown hair and next to her was Andrew and Mary. Below the picture, there was a caption that said **Anna Ruby Falls**. Remembering his studies, that waterfall was located in North Georgia. It was the most popular waterfall in the area.

The next page was the same brown-haired woman. There was a Christmas tree in the background and Mary watching as her brother took his turn opening a present. More like "tear it until there's nothing left", really. Under this picture had a caption written in another hand that Foster didn't recognize, in beautiful cursive, that said **My Best Christmas**.

Foster turned the page one more time, seeing yet another photo involving the woman. Daniel was right next to her and had his face turned to kiss the woman on the cheek. The green robot came to the conclusion that this was someone that Daniel loved a lot. The caption; **My Heart and Soul, Crystal**.

Crystal, eh? Well, why wasn't she here right now? Did she move on to someone else, her parents force her not to marry him, what? Feeling the eagerness build up inside, something told him to skip to the last page and look. But what it was scared him half to death. The picture was at a church. Daniel, Mary, Andrew, and Henry, standing in front of something, dressed in black, with their heads down. Foster took a look at the titled caption, complete with stressed handwriting and a tear drop mark.

**Crystal's Funeral**.

Foster forced out some purple tears that raced along down his face and onto the floor. Why didn't they ever tell him about Crystal? Was it too painful? How long had she actually been dead? Since that was the last picture, it had to be two years ago, in 2007. Crystal seemed to be a thing of beauty that Daniel could never replace. That's why Andrew and Mary didn't have a stepmother, because no one could ever be better than their real mother.

"What are you doing here?" said a voice behind him. Foster gasped and turned his head to see Daniel standing in front of his doorway. "I said, what are you doing here?"

"Why didn't you tell me? About her?" Foster pointed to that dreadful picture. Daniel began to cry and sat down on his bed. Foster ran up next to him and tried to comfort him by putting an arm on his back.

"It's okay," he said, trying to get a good look at the man's face. "Don't be sad."

"You sound just like her…" he cried. Foster's gears trilled a few times as he wiped away his father's tears.

"Can you tell me what happened?" he asked. Daniel took in a deep breath. Whenever he talked about his wife's death, it always brought him back to tears.

"Sunday, June 3rd, 2007," he sighed. "She was walking to the store. She never took the truck to do that, she liked looking at nature rather than passing straight by it…(sniff). She was just going to get Mimi's birthday cake, since it was the next day… On her way back…" Daniel started choking up. His face tensed as tears came back through his eyes. "On her way back, she was…killed…"

Foster's eyes went wide and curved a bit to show how sorry he was. He would never know how much Daniel was going through; it was just something you had to experience before you could understand.

"Some guy had gotten drunk with his buddies, refused to take a cab. He jumped the curb and…" He trailed off, not knowing what to say. Foster could tell what had happened and asked him not to say anything more.

"I'm sorry I had to put you through this again," he said.

"Don't," Daniel sobbed. "I should-a told you months ago… I just don't want you to leave."

"You don't want me to get hurt like Crystal? How come?"

"You just…remind me of her…" he said. "You teach the kids, you learn the way people should; by reading, you love nature more than tech (which I find odd), and just by how you talk brings her back here."

Foster smiled. He was glad he was being compared to Daniel's wife, honestly. That showed how bonded Daniel actually felt towards Foster and he understood his carefulness to the robot child not getting hurt in any way. Foster tried putting his arms around Daniel, to give him a hug, but they wouldn't reach that far. The man could hear the joints groaning as he reached and chuckled. Instead, he put Foster onto his lap and lowered his face down so the baby could put his arms around his neck instead. Daniel put his arms around the sparkling and hugged him.

"Thanks for keeping me," Foster cooed. Daniel sniffed one more time.

"You're welcome," he replied. The human and robot let go of their hug. "Now, we've got a sleepover to plan."

Foster's optics lit up like the Christmas tree in the picture and cheered as he jumped off Daniel's lap and ran to Andrew's room to tell his brother the good news. From his room, Daniel could hear his son cheering as well. The boy passed by the room and told his dad thanks as he did. Foster came by, nodded his head to his father, and skipped down the stairs to follow his brother.

Daniel picked up the photo album and skipped to that picture of him kissing Crystal on the cheek.

"Why did you make me say that?" he chuckled.

* * *

Andrew raced his friend back to the house, the backpacks weighing them both down. George, learning how to run with three textbooks on your back, ran right past Andrew and made it to the front porch. Andrew kept shouting and laughing and gasping for rematch, but George kept bragging sarcastically how he was more superior and crap. Once Andrew told him to shut up, the door opened and a little mechanical robot jumped on George's leg to hug him.

"Yay! You're here!" he cheered. George laughed and bent down next to Foster. "Welcome to the Dawson farm!"

"Glad to finally be here," George smiled. He patted Foster and the head and walked inside. Andrew showed him where he could put his stuff and gave him a tour around the house. First room he showed was Foster's. At your first glance, you'd think Foster was a bit of a slob. But all that was on the floor were books that were stacked up that wouldn't fit on the small bookshelf he had.

"If you ever feel like reading, ask him," Andrew joked. George looked down at the green robot.

"How do you even know which book is which? I mean, if you wanna see a specific one?" he asked.

"They're alphabetized!" the baby announced. He walked over to a stack and looked at the spine of the book. "This stack is letter L."

"So, if I wanna read _The Lion King_, how are you…?" he trailed off. Foster knew what he was going to say anyway. He picked up a large amount of books from that pile and picked one out from the ones that were still intact with the ground. He put the books back down and walked over to George to give him the book.

"There you go. _The Lion King_," he chirped.

"Yer just a little ball o' wonders, aren't ya?" George teased. Foster smiled so much that he had to close his eyes. Andrew moved him on down to the barn to show off his new horse.

"Hey, I got a trick question for ya," Andrew said, a grin on his face.

"Sure, go ahead," George said, hands on hips.

"Can you figure out what all the large horses have in common?"

George looked at the black, the brown, and the white horses. He knew the small brown-gold one was probably Mary's and didn't bother to try and guess the name yet. He kept looking a the other horses.

"Their names are--" Andrew pointed to each as he gave out the names. "--Quincy-Adams, Shakespeare, and Jackson. Two are related in some way, and the third is obvious."

George smiled, and tried his guess. "Quincy, Jackson, and Adams were the names of presidents. Shakespeare was also one of the old guys, but was around the…15th century?"

"Sixteenth," Andrew corrected. "That was good! People only guessed Shakespeare all the time, which I thought was pretty funny."

"Do I get to ride one?" he excitement in his eyes practically begged Andrew to ride a horse. The last time he ever ridden one was when he was five.

"Right now?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah! Right now!"

"I'll have to ask my dad first."

"Oh, yeah, that's cool. I understand."

Andrew and Mary were always taught to ask permission before anything. If you never told your parents where you were, that always was trouble. Then you sit in your room thinking "Why didn't I call him and say I was going to Victor's? Then I wouldn't be grounded for a week."

George waited inside the barn, petting the dogs. Andrew had already told a couple of stories about the huskies, so he knew their names by now. The white one had to be Ken and the black was Bud. He played with them for a bit until he heard a noise outside.

* * *

Just a few minutes ago, Foster was up in his room, looking at the clouds and figuring out what some looked like. There was one that looked like a dragon's head and another that seemed to be a circus elephant. There were even some clouds lined up to look like a mother duck with her babies.

But it all went black. He knew what this was and had no clue that it would happen again! This time, it was someone different. His face became a dark grey, his limbs blue, and his chest red and white. A helmet came across his head and wings like a jet emerged from the back, complete with a red stripe on each.

"The sparkling is mine to command!" said the voice of Foster's intruder. The baby tried to fight him off, but there was no way. "Prime will fall by my own servo! I will be the supreme ruler!" The voice was a little high-pitched, making Foster wonder if it was just a guy with vocal issues, or some girl with a sore throat. Either way, he could feel that one's darkness rising up.

Not able to control himself, he jumped out of the open window and landed with a large thud. Because of this new intruder, he hated the dirt, the sky, the air, everything that was organic.

George ran outside to see the little sparkling and his new colors. It scared the living crap out of him when the eyes suddenly turned red, to show the prowler's true dominance over the sparkling's body.

"Organic filth," the voice growled. To complete the process, two blue guns showed up on each arm, and one pointed to George's direction.

Feeling that fight-or-flight response, George chose the flight. He ran as fast as he could to the house and slammed the door shut as Foster nearly tore off the back of his shirt with a high-heat laser missile.

Foster's trespasser was angry. He hated everything about this place. He wanted it all to go in fire, burn away and never come back. He wanted the world to die, to end forever.

_Get out of my body!_ the baby screamed inside his head. The prowler laughed.

"Why? So you can go back to living with humans that care so little about you?" he grinned.

_Liar! Who are you?!_

"I am the great Starscream."

Foster tried to think for a bit. He remembered this coloring from somewhere. He saw it in one of Frenzy's memories. It was the same mech that had stood at Megatron's side in the throne room. The one who looked like he was ready to kill his own leader.

"Your power of adaptation is truly astounding, I must say, Starscream continued. He looked at the servo he controlled. "Once someone takes control, your ability can't help but let them in. Oh, this makes it so much easier!"

_Let go of me!_

"Still trying?" Starscream laughed again. "Whatever makes you think that I would simply let you go? I'm here to finish what Megatron had started. That overgrown excuse of a Decepticon could never amount to what I have in store for you."

A shot was heard. It Starscream in the head, but he never flinched. He only growled and turned to see Henry holding up a rifle.

"Let go of him, Megatron!" he shouted.

"I am _not_ Megatron, nor ever _will_ be! I am Starscream; Ace of the Skies! You and your kind's incompetence will be your downfall!"

_Run, Henry! Run!_

"They can't hear you!" Starscream sang. Henry shot again, this time at the eye. Both Starscream and Foster had yelled in pain. "You seriously wouldn't harm the son of Optimus Prime, would you?" His smirk grew wider and _really _started to piss off Henry. The red glowing eyes had added to that smirk and he wanted so bad to shot him. But Starscream was right; he could never shoot Foster.

"The orb…"

Starscream heard. "I'll blow that thing to bits once it is in my sights! This sparkling is mine!"

_But if you destroyed it, you wouldn't be able to harness power!_

The seeker stopped and turned his head as if Foster was standing right beside him. "Pardon?"

_The orb can contain power. With enough you could use it for anything._

"You're sharing information with me, Autobot?" Starscream was getting his suspicions. But, like always, his Decepticon desire for power got the best of him. "Where is the sphere?"

_Let Henry get it. If he doesn't cooperate, force him._

"Hm, you're becoming more of a Decepticon with each passing day, little one." Starscream turned to the man holding the gun. "Get me the orb!"

"No!"

"NOW! Or I'll blow his entire place!" His guns pointed directly to the porch. It was a thing of gravity, really. Something above must fall if the level below had given out. Knowing this, Henry ran back inside to fetch the orb. Starscream turned his head again to speak to Foster. "I'm impressed with you, sparkling. What was your name again?"

_Foster._

"Foster…Makes sense with an ability like yours. Adapt and adopt. Hm." Henry came back out, with Daniel and Mary following. "Is that your so-called 'sister'?"

_Yeah, that's Mimi._

"So young."

"Starscream!" Henry said to get the mech's attention. His head had turned back to look at the man. Henry threw the blue orb into the air, and Starscream flew up to meet it. The orb started to glow brightly in the palm of his hand.

"Yes. The power. Mine! MINE! All will tremble before my presence! The Autobots will learn to fear me and Decepticons to obey! The power is mine!"

_You don't have much a life, do you, Starscream? Or a brain for that matter!_

"Quiet!"

_Listen up here, dork. Wasn't this the same orb that took away Megatron last time he tried to overpower me?_

Starscream's optics widened. He looked down at the orb and screamed. How could he have been so stupid?! He could already feel himself being drained from the sparkling's body and the color began to fade back to green.

"You tricked me!" he shouted.

_Of course I did, you nut job, you! I _am _the sparkling of Prime, after all._

"CURSE YOU, AUTOBOT!"

With that, Starscream's last words were sucked out into the orb and he was sent back to his original body. Foster dropped down from midair and ran over to Daniel.

* * *

Back at the Decepticons' underwater base, Starscream fell backwards as his spirit finally caught up with him and pushed itself back into the form. His head started pounding as he tried to stand up, but fell back down. That sphere took a lot out of him.

"So how'd it go?" Rumble teased as he walked up into Starscream's vision.

"That's child's a menace," the seeker groaned.

* * *

"Dude, Foster, that was awesome! How'd you do that!" George cheered. His eyes were wide with the excitement and mouth open in surprise.

"My Christmas present from Mommy and Daddy," he said simply. George looked to Daniel.

"But I thought she died."

"No! Not here!" Foster laughed. "My real parents!"

"Whoa! You've seen them?!"

"No. But I want to! They'll be so proud of me!"

Andrew cut in. "Alright, the creepy guy's gone. Can we please have the rest of this night a normal one? My first sleepover this year and some other robot has to mess it up!"

"Bet I could beat in a race on those horses," George dared.

"You're on!"

xXx

Author's Note: Yes, this time it was Starscream's attempt at overtaking the boy.  
Anyone know the relationship of the horse names before this chapter? (Besides Shakespeare?)  
How many were crying at the photo album moment?

And how come the only person who sends reveiws to me is whitedino? ~


	12. The Science of Fiction

**Well I'm leaving tomorrw morning to go to Grandma's and hopefull I'll be able to work on both school work and computer life. So this is a short chapter that I wanted to leave you guys with. And if you've haven't reviewed in a while please tell me what you think of the idea.**

Chapter XII

Starscream's head nearly exploded trying to think of a new way to control the green sparkling. The only way to control him was to get inside his body, but the fragging orb was what caused him to fail. He would try destroying it, but Optimus Prime would have made sure that the orb was indestructible for his child. There was no way to get to the child without thinking of the mission as suicidal.

"Still sulking here, Screamer?" Frenzy laughed as he passed by his room. "Told ya it was a bad idea, didn't I?"

"Shut up," Starscream growled lowly. He didn't dare look at the Cassetteicon. That stupid grin on his face would make him ticked and want to shoot him to kingdom come. And Soundwave would then try to kill hi, huh?

"The big boys are in the throne room, plannin' somethin'. I think you might wanna hear it."

Half of Starscream said to stay, but the other half said that he should go. Still, hearing whatever Megatron was planning was the best choice, no matter how much he hated him. So Starscream stood up from the chair he was in and followed Frenzy back to the throne room.

* * *

Foster stayed in his room, drawing a picture of what he remembered Megatron to look like. Once he was done coloring it, he took a dart board he found in the basement. He taped the picture up on the dart board and grabbed the darts. The sparkling stood on the other edge of the room and kept a death glare on the picture and hoisted up a dart.

"Foster, you in here?" Henry said, coming in the room. Foster threw the dart immediately after his uncle came in and bulls-eyed at Megatron's right leg.

"Yeah," Foster muttered, taking another dart. He hit the drawing at the stomach.

"Still mad?"

"I've got a picture of my dad's enemy on a dart board." The kid said, really acting as if he was stating the most obvious.

"Right…" Foster hit him again in the optic. "Do you want something to eat?"

"Some pick axes would be nice." The green kid didn't take his eyes off the drawing, keeping his angry expression glued to the dart board. Henry chuckled.

"For the picture or for your food?" he said.

"Both." He threw another and hit Megatron in a spot that males don't like getting shot. "Bulls-eye."

* * *

School came around again for Andrew and Mary. Foster wasn't so sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing anymore. For one reason, both of them had his signature written all over them and that made the Decepticons' job easy to track them down. The only good part that really came was the kids learning something in school. But the sparkling knew that whatever he would say to Henry, Daniel, or even Andrea, they would still have to take the kids to school.

The first day came and Foster stayed up in his room. He studied up on what was the best way to melt metal (if Frenzy or Rumble ever tried to track them again). He came across a question that was posted on a forum site that said "Can a light saber cut through Adamantium?" First he had to know what the heck a light saber even was and found out that it was just some made-up weapon in an old science fiction movie called _Star Wars_. Though the perception of the saber's power didn't seem so far off; the hilt was the base of the energy sword and the blade was made totally out of light. Since light was a tremendous source of heat, it was possible that made the saber could cut through any metal, even Cybertronian.

"I found my science project," he grinned. He didn't notice his sister standing behind him.

"I haven't even found _mine _yet," she said. Foster yelped in surprise and turned around quick to see her curious face. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing!" he said without hesitation. "Nothing at all! Just, uh…You know, reading. The usual."

"Oh…Just wondering." And she walked off. Foster sighed and put his hand to his head.

"So close…" he sighed. "She would've been on my tail forever." He went back to studying the idea of the light saber. The blade could only go up to three-feet long and the only thing it couldn't penetrate was another energy shield, sword, or wall. Hopefully the Decepticons didn't have much of it. And lastly it could serve as a thin shield against attacks ranging from the most primitive like spears to the most advanced like high-heat blast bolts.

Though he knew that this was all just created from a human's mind for a fiction story, it seemed intelligent enough to try it. Foster would be the one to actually prove the creator right but would have to go through more trouble than what the prop designer could. He was dealing with something that was more advanced than human technology and possibly Cybertron. It was a challenge he was ready to accept, no matter the cause.

xXx

Author's Note: I would so work on that project with him! How about the rest of you?


	13. Nearly Complete

Chapter XIII

Foster tried his best hiding in the barn from the Dawsons so he could work on the light saber. It was difficult to accomplish though; he tried thinking everything through. He knew for a fact he would try putting the orb from his parents into the hilt for the energy source, but then came questions like "What if I use too much or too little energy?" and "What if the hilt can't hold the orb for a long time and what if it can't contain its power?" and the most used question of all time "What if the project fails?" There was a lot of "what ifs" in Foster's mind, but he would still keep trying to make it work.

From the farm tools, he tried stripping them of their metal to bend and weld them so he could create the hilt. He figured he would try using some other piece of metal to hold the orb down into its place so the energy wouldn't try to explode from its position. As soon as he would flip the switch, the energy would come out, but would it come out as a thin blade or would it jump out as just a detonation of strong energy? That's where he was stumped.

"Foster!" someone called. The sparkling tried hiding his science project in two different baskets and told whoever it was that they could come in. The barn door opened and the all-too-familiar policewoman came in.

"Andrea!" Foster cheered. "Long time no see!"

"Same here. Gimme a hug!" The 'bot ran up to her and jumped up to hug her, arms placed around her neck. "Anything interesting happen while I was gone?"

"Eh, not much. Except for two psychos trying to take over my body." He noticed the confused but shocked expression on her face. "Henry will give you the story."

"Um…speaking of Henry…" Andrea put Foster down and placed her hands on her hips. "I'm not sure how to say this…"

"Is he alright? What happened?"

"No, no! He's fine! He's okay, it's just…Promise not to tell?"

The green robot crossed a finger over his chest and nodded.

"I…think I like him."

Foster's optics went wide. "Wait, you…like Henry? As in the _like _like, or friend like?"

"Double like," she said with a shy smile.

"I knew it!" the sparkling cheered, jumping up and down in one spot. "I knew you two had to like each other! I knew it! Andrea, I won't lie to you, but do you remember Valentine's Day?"

"Y--Yeah, he gave me this ring," she said, holding up her right hand to show a diamond ring on her pointer finger.

"He loves you! Can't ya see?! He loves you! He told me himself that he did!"

Andrea's cheeks went red. "He…does…?

"What, you think he didn't?" Then he noticed her eyes and could tell what she was thinking. "Come on! Just because you guys are different ethnicities doesn't mean that he can't love you and you can't love him."

"Sorry, I've just been around my grandmother so much, her telling her the old stories, and I just thought--"

Foster tugged at her pants leg. "Well stop thinking and start doing," he said. Then he scrambled back over to the work desk.

Andrea's curious head tilted a bit and pointed to the covered up baskets. "What are those?" she asked.

"Uh…" Foster exchanged looks from the baskets and back to her. "You can keep a secret right?"

"No one outside this house knows about you, Foster," she smiled. "I can keep a secret."

"Okay, come over here." As Foster scuttled the baskets over to the desk, Andrea's head was echoing with the question "What is he doing?" and was all too eager to know the answer. Foster was finished arranging the baskets and looked at her with trusting eyes.

"Don't be freaked," he said. Andrea nodded and watched as he uncovered the baskets to show a sci-fi looking hilt of a sword and some blueprints in another basket.

"What the heck…?" she started out as she grabbed the prints. The woman studied them for a few seconds and realized what he was doing. "Is this…a sword?"

"A light saber, to be exact," he corrected.

Andrea put the paper down and put a hand on her hip. "Why, and excuse my French, why the hell are you building something that's made-up from a movie? I _told _those men not to give you so much TV!"

"No, Andrea, you don't understand! You, see…" And he continued with his story, from when Megatron claimed his body, to Frenzy and Rumble's ambush, all the way up to Starscream's possession. "And I want to make this light saber just in self-defense. Please! I know what's going to happen if they take the orb and when they do there's going to be Hell! I won't let that happen to this planet."

Andrea's face changed and she half-smiled. "You're really determined, aren't you?"

Foster nodded. "Stop thinking…"

"And start doing."

* * *

Andrea stood by Foster and watched in wonder as he worked out the hilt and the measurements of the inside and of the orb so he could make the blue sphere fit. Every now and again Foster would ask her to hold something or to put pressure on something, just so she didn't feel as if she was useless.

"Hey, you two," said Daniel, walking in. Andrea turned around and slightly held up her arms to hide the project while the sparkling ran around trying to put back in the baskets. "What's happening over here?"

"Nothing!" Andrea said, eyes getting wide.

"It ain't nothing if Foster's acting like that." He pointed to the robot. "You can't lie ta me."

Andrea looked down at Foster. He nodded slightly and she turned her head back to Daniel.

"Foster said it's secret, so it's secret," she snapped. Daniel kept looking at Foster and Andrea, then repeated the sequence.

"Alright, then," he said after a while. "Then I didn't see anything. Dinner's on the table if you want some." And he walked out.

"It's dinner already?" Foster said with a tilt to his head. Andrea laughed and picked him up.

"That was close," she sighed.

"A little too much. If I told him, they'd get scared."

"And over protective."

* * *

He had orders straight from Prime to go to Earth. Although he hated the idea of leaving Cybertron, he had no choice but to go. Optimus said that he received an urgent message from his son (through the orb) and ordered Jazz to go immediately. The white mech thought it was strange that he had never heard of Optimus Prime's sparkling before (and was curious who he had gotten with to get the sparkling), but he was filled in as he got into the pod that would take him all the way to the other side of the galaxy to Earth. He was also ordered not harm anything or anyone while he was there to protect him, and he going to try his best to keep his word.

* * *

The sparkling tried spending the night in the barn with the dogs to keep working on the saber. He didn't want to waste any time on it, given the fact that a Decepticon could come by at any time. He was still having trouble of what would happen if he tried to activate the sword. He didn't have any other kind of power that could keep it at the length it was supposed to be. He groaned out loud, making the dogs jump back at the unexpected sound, and slammed his head onto the desk.

"Why does this have to be so hard?!" he grunted. It came quick to his thoughts that you can't just hope and dream for something. Usually you have to make it happen. "Stop thinking and start doing." He stood up from the desk and took another look at the hilt. Staring at it helped him think of how to contain the power.

He jumped out from his work space and tried to find every piece of glass he could. He took them all, shaped them to be three feet long and only half an inch in diameter. He gave it a hollow form and kept the top of it shaped smoothly into a semi circle like it was a very long test tube. Then Foster focused his power onto the glass and it soon began to glow, brighter and brighter. After a while, he figured it was enough power and placed it vertically on the ground in front of him. He took a few steps back and pointed an arm at the glass.

"Cross your paws, boys," he said to the dogs. He fired an energy blast at the glass, but the result was want he wanted.

It deflected the attack.

The glass didn't fall over from force, it didn't shatter, it just stood still, glowing lowly of a light blue. Foster smiled, trying to hold in a victorious shout, and walked back to the glass.

"Sword: seventy-three percent complete," he said to himself. "Now, for the finale." He walked back to the desk and dug into a basket. He pulled out the orb given to him by his dad and prayed that his hypothesis would work. But he was interrupted as he heard an explosive thud coming just two miles away from the house.


	14. Don't Shoot

I cheated. I would've had this up right after I uploaded the last chapter, but I wanted to see your guys' reaction. {P Thank you to the people that review! To the ones that don't, why do you have this for a story alert in the first place?

* * *

Chapter XIV

Mary sat up straight in her bed as soon as she heard it. It was definitely loud enough to wake up the whole town, and her reaction was to get her dad out of bed to go follow it. She jumped out and ran to her father's bedroom. She shook his shoulder several times and he groaned as he was forced to wake up.

"What, Mimi?" he grunted, rubbing his eyes.

"There's a monster outside," she whispered. Daniel groaned aloud and stood up out of his bed. He bent over slightly an a few cracks from his back where heard and let out a sigh.

"C'mon!" she urged. "There's a monster out there!"

"Hold your horses, Mimi, I'm coming."

Mary pulled at her dad's arm and led him downstairs. At the same time, Foster met up with them in the living room. Mary said hi, but he ignored her and turned on the television.

"Foster, what were you doing?" Daniel said, not feeling in the mood for any of this. "It's--" He looked at the clock. "--one o' clock in the morning. Where have you been?"

"Experimenting" was the sparkling's only answer as he turned the channel over to the news. The scene was at the town, just a mile away, and in the park square. People were crowding around a two-story tall oval that looked like a metal pod. It was steaming, but not the kind from heat, from dry ice. A news reporter lady was already there with her cameraman and giving her story.

"_Moments ago, this craft landed right here in the middle of town square. Witnesses have already claimed that they have seen it fall from right out of the sky and said it to be from outer space, or, and I quote them, 'aliens'. No evidence has yet been reported_--"

"It's them," Foster shouted. "It can't be, I'm not done with the weapon!"

"W--Weapon? What _weapon_?" Daniel screamed. Foster didn't pay attention to him and ran outside. Henry and Andrew came down, asking what was going on, but no one wanted to give them an answer. The Dawsons followed Foster out and they climbed into the '97 Cadillac.

"I didn't want to tell you guys, but I'm working on building a light saber," the sparkling announced.

"A _what_?!" Henry said, igniting the car engine.

"Why didn't you tell us?!" Daniel yelled, turning his head to look at the robot.

"I didn't want to you to worry!" the sparkling cried. "If I had told, you would want to stop me! The sword is built so I can defend us from those Decepticons."

"Decepti-what?" Andrew asked.

"I haven't told you this either…But those things that we've been fighting? Those are what my race call Decepticons. They want to…take over everything."

"Define 'everything', Foster," Henry said, sounding very irritated. He drove off down the road, making the tires squeal against the concrete.

"Everything; as in first the town, then the state, then the continent, then the world, and it'll continue to spread out in the entire galaxy, and possibly further!" the green robot shouted, outstretching his arms. "I'm building that light saber to fight them off so it won't happen!"

"I don't think a little light saber is going to cut it, Foster," Daniel groaned.

"It's worth a try."

* * *

They made it up to town square just in time to see three quarters of the townspeople gathered to the square and witness the pod for themselves. Several policemen and policewomen tried to shove them back away from the craft. But nothing stopped them from at least taking a picture to post up on the Internet.

"Bruckner, get those people back!" Andrea shouted to her team. "Just show your gun and they'll step away!"

Henry raced out of the car after he parked and ran up to the African-American.

"Andrea!" he shouted. She turned around. "What the hell's going on here?"

"Apparently your adopted nephew's friends have come along," she said, sounding mad. "I should've known keeping him was a bad idea!"

"Don't talk about Foster that way; that pod is not what you think!"

"I know enough to think that whatever is in that thing--" She pointed to the pod with her walkie-talkie in hand. "--is brought here because of your little green monster right there!" She pointed back to Foster, who was helping Mary out of the car. "I suggest you get that thing out of the town and out of the _state _before he gives us all Hell."

Henry grabbed her shoulders. "This is _not _Foster's doing!"

He wasn't allowed to say anything more when the pod behind them started to hiss and slowly open up. The people around started to scream in both fear and excitement. The police tried even harder to get them to step back. Foster stared up at the machine and tried to see if he could get a good look at what was inside. He saw the face first, then the neck, then the chest. And on the chest was a red symbol.

"DON'T SHOOT!" Foster shouted, running up to the pod. Andrea tried to catch him, but she wasn't fast enough. The green sparkling ran through the crowd of people and blue uniforms until he made it to the pod. One policeman saw him and tried to catch him, too.

"Get back here, ya little monster!" he shouted. Foster dodged him and wondered why he called him a monster. He quickly remembered that no one except the Dawsons and Andrea knew that he existed on the farm.

The pod opened up to its limit to reveal a white, two-story tall robot. All of the police turned their attention away from the people and at the robot; all getting out their guns and ready to fire. Foster flew up in front of the 'bot and spread his arms out.

"Don't shoot him!" he shouted. "He's not the bad guy!"

"Foster, get down from there!" Daniel shouted. The green sparkling held his place and glared at everyone that was ready to aim and fire.

"He's not the bad guy! He's my dad's friend!" he continued. "I'm here because my father was scared that I'd get hurt! The ones that want to hurt us have found me now, but this one is not one of them! He's here to protect all of us!"

There were several cries of disbelief in the crowd. It became contagious and soon everyone was saying that he was telling lies.

"It's the truth!" Foster cried out. "I've been here for over a year! I was taken in as if I was human, I was treated correctly, I played, I studied, I spent holidays; all with just one family. I'm not that different from all of you!"

A few sections of the crowd started to quiet down to say they believed him, but there were still others that refused. The sparkling didn't know what else to say under this pressure. There were too many people in one spot. If one didn't believe him, it would pass to the next one; it was something called "group think." Whatever the one next to you did you probably thought it was the right thing to do. Soon the ones that were quiet might go right back to not believing him.

He heard a hiss behind him and looked at the white mech. The cryo-stasis was starting to wear off and heat was coming back to him. Foster had to think of something quick before the robot could move. He had to think of what his father might do. So he looked back out at the crowd with the most serious face anyone ever saw.

"Millions of years ago, there was a war," he started out. Some more people began to quiet down to listen to him. "This war took place on another planet, the one where I'm from. My dad and my mom fought in that war, to try and protect everything from going wrong. The leader of the evil group, the Decepticons, Megatron, wanted to take over a valuable piece to this planet. It was said to have all the power anyone could ever want. My dad heard of his plan and hid it somewhere where he couldn't find it.

"Megatron did everything to track it down," he continued. The entire square was silent to listen to him speak. "None of his followers could find it, so he became angry.

"My dad, the leader of the good group, the Autobots, just over a year or so ago had me as a son. He knew he couldn't keep me, because the Decepticons would find me. So he sent me here, to Earth, so I would be protected and learn on my own. I thought he sent me here because he didn't want me, but now I understand.

"The Decepticons first attacked February." The crowd started to murmur. "They targeted me and tried to take over me so that I would be used for their purpose! This one, right here--" He motioned to the white mech behind him. "--is here to help protect not just me but the entire human race from being under the command of Megatron. He's here to help. So I ask for the third time tonight, don't shoot him."

The police still held their guns up. They didn't choose to believe him. Mary escaped from her dad's hand and ran past the crowd.

"Mimi, wait!" Daniel shouted. Mary ignored him and kept running. She pushed past the line of police and stood in front of the pod, stared back at the crowd.

"Don't shoot," she murmured. Andrew ran up to her as well and stood right by her to hold her hand and support her.

"Don't shoot!" he shouted. Then a stranger ran up to the pod and did the exact motion. Then another, and another, and another. Six people were standing in front of the pod to show they weren't afraid to believe him. Daniel and Henry were the next to go and stood by their kids and the strangers. They shouted the same thing.

"Don't shoot!"

Another family of five ran up to them, then two more families, and another individual. Before long, half of the crowd was in front of the pod, all yelling at the police not to shoot. Andrea sighed and looked at the captain who stood next to her.

"Sir?" she asked.

He exhaled and nodded his head. "Lower your weapons!" he shouted.

The line of officers obeyed the command.

Foster cheered and flew in circles around the pod. The Dawsons started cheering with him and the crowd did the same. But as soon as a faint noise was heard, Foster stopped dead in front of the face of his father's friend.

"_What did I miss?_" he said in Cybertronian.

xXx

Author's Note: Yeah, everyone taking Foster's side seemed cheesy to me, but the green guy has an army now. ^.^


	15. Home

I would've had this up a LOT earlier, but it turns out that I've been grounded the past nine weeks...Yes, nine weeks; bad grade in math. Anyway! Here's your chapter! GO FOSTER!

* * *

Chapter XV

The little green robot couldn't move even a bit. He was too astounded at the white mech in the pod. Everyone else seemed just as surprised and stood wondering if they should scramble or just stay put and watch what would happen. Some were afraid of running, but logic said that they should stay and wait for the robot to speak.

"_Where's the party_?" the white mech smiled. Foster seemed to understand him and smiled back. He flew closer and hooked a wire to the other's head to download the language so he could speak it, and so the stranger could understand the inhabitants.

"Howdy do, newcomer!" Foster said cutely. The mech chuckled.

"Hey yerself, youngling. Name's Jazz."

The green sparkling saluted Jazz and spoke proudly. "Foster, sir!"

Jazz chuckled again. "You've got yer daddy's spark alright." He was interrupted by the muttering of the humans below. He looked to see them pointing at him and whispering things he couldn't hear. That was usually a sign of curiosity among a group like this. There were others who had dressed alike in blue uniforms and some of them holding weapons securely to their hips. His logic center told him they were somewhat of a threat and should be watched on carefully.

"So, why ya here, Jazz?" Foster interrupted his thought process. He looked back at him.

"I hate to tell you this…but the Decepticons are coming closer." Half of the crowd heard him, gasped, and started telling the ones next to him who did not hear. "Your dad wants you back on Cybertron before they reach Earth."

Foster looked down at the Dawsons who stared right back at him. He studied each of their faces.

Daniel; his father and mentor. He kept his family strong years after his wife had died and did everything he could to protect him from whatever harm would come. He saw the green sparkling as his own child and a friend. He believed that the baby's family would come and never stopped in faith. Foster couldn't possibly leave him alone.

Henry; his protector and the one who taught him how to throw a baseball. He was as much of a father as Daniel, but more brotherly. He was the one who bought his books, played games with him, and showed his kindness towards him every day. The baby knew that he had to return the favor.

Andrew; brother and friend. The first day Foster came to school he tried to protect him from anyone who didn't understand. He protected his little sister like a mother to a baby. Definitely one who could not be betrayed.

Mary; the smallest, youngest, and most innocent and vulnerable of the Dawsons. Foster protected her like Andrew did and taught her how to be independent in her own likings. He was her mentor, taught her things girls at her age never knew until high school. He couldn't bear to leave her for dead.

"I'm staying," Foster said, smirking at the white mech. Jazz's face turned into a frown.

"I have orders, kid," he replied. "I'm taking you back to your home."

"This _is _my home. I grew up here," the sparkling said. "I'm not leaving this place behind to the mercy of the Decepticons."

"But they're just org--"

"Just organics? Look at them, Jazz. They are born, they live, they grow, they laugh, they play, they cry, they have families and friends, they eat, they sleep, they explore, they have dreams and nightmares, they experience, and they have knowledge…So tell me, are you willing to risk a whole race of life just to save mine? This is where I grew up. They let me live, and I'm going to return the favor. If you don't like that idea, then go back to my dad and say the mission was unsuccessful. I'm not leaving this place until the Decepticons are running away with their tailpipe between their legs."

Below the two cybernetic beings you could hear Andrew shout in joy first, then the rest of the crowd quickly joined in with a chorus of excitement. Jazz was left speechless, staring at the sparkling with a half-open mouth. The police were smiling and some of them joined into the roars. Andrea was laughing as Henry picked her up with a hug and spun her in place.

"So, no matter what I tell you," Jazz sighed, "you ain't comin' unless you're sure these guys are safe?"

"Safe as a pillow," Foster smirked.

"I think you might need help with that."

* * *

"Any word from Jazz yet?" Optimus asked, anxious to hear about his own son.

"Not yet, sir," Sideswipe answered.

The red leader groaned. He knew that no matter what he had to have patience, but the only time he had ever seen his son was when it was born. At the time he knew he couldn't keep him in such a vulnerable state, but that's what sparklings remained in at such an age. Not to mention he didn't want his child growing up in such a prejudiced area such as Cybertron when it came to organic creatures. Therefore the only way to keep his son safe and with a smart mind was to keep him on a far-away organic planet. He only hoped his intentions became true.

/_Hey, Prime!_/ Jazz's voice said over his com-link.

"Jazz! You made it!"

/_Sure did! And yer kid's a lot like ya!/_

Optimus chuckled. "I'll have to see for myself. When can he come back?"

/_Oh, uh…That's the problem._/

"Is your pod damaged?"

/_No, it's fine. It's your son. He ain't hurt, but he wants to stay._/

"What?!" The base echoed and all heads in the room turned to look at their leader.

/_Listen, Prime! Your little kid, he calls himself Foster, and apparently the Decepticons know he's here. And since the fleshies here accept him and taught him, he wants to do them a favor and save them before the D-cons decide to tear up the place._/

"You're right, Jazz, that sparkling really _is _like me…"

/_So I told him he might need help._/

"Can we make it in time, then?"

/_I don't know, sir. Planet's a long way from where you are._/

"I don't care! That's my son and a planet we're talking about, Jazz. Stay there and wait for us!" With that said, Optimus closed the link.

* * *

"There must be some other way to attack!" Starscream shouted. "We can't just march in and try to take the child! Have you seen what it's done to us?!"

"There is no other way, Starscream," Megatron growled. "I've had it to here with that sparkling. I'd rather go to it fighting rather than sit here and worry about Optimus getting to it first."

"Uh, hel-lo!" Rumble chimed in. "This is a kid we're talking about!"

"One that kicked your skid plate," Astrotrain chuckled. The small blue cassette shook a fist at him.

"Quit bickering," the grey mech grumbled. "Once we get that sparkling, the power source Prime kept for so many years will be ours; he would feel like a fool to entrust it with a child, even his own. We drain the planet dry of energy, claim Cybertron back, then destroy any and all Autobots and humans.

We strike in three days. That should give the organics time to panic."

xXx

Author's Note: Like I said, GO FOSTER! Boo, Megatron! *throws tomato*


	16. Rendell Meets Foster

This would've been up last week if I had come up with the idea sooner. Please enjoy the drama of Pennsylvania's governor Rendell!

* * *

Chapter XVI

Turns out that panic was the last thing on their minds. The police were arming any man and woman fifteen and older with guns and rifles and grenades and flares and anything else they might use against robots. Foster was there to teach them how to find weak points on a robot's body. (Most common one turned out to be the back of the knee joint.)

"No! Put that phone down!"

"I was just gonna--"

"You were just gonna nothin'! I know what you're thinking, Henry, but calling the government won't help. They'll think we're on drugs if we say a robot army is on its way from space."

Henry obeyed his brother and put the phone back down. Only fights he had ever been in were a few matches in the high school wrestling team, but that was years ago and a totally different situation. This time he was going up against guys not twice his size, but about ten more times his size, and made of metal. They would probably need more than an old town to fight against these things.

Foster was talking to Jazz to see if anything more was going to be of use against the Decepticons. The white mech shook his head and looked at the ground.

"Foster, buddy, this is only a fraction of what ya need," he answered gloomily. The green sparkling's smile was wiped clean away. "What we need are plasma and proton blasters. Anything high-heat."

"Only thing high-heat we have is a furnace!" Daniel shouted to him. "And the real high-heat is owned by the government!"

"Haven't ya tried callin' 'em?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," Andrea stepped in. "Let's call up the big boys and tell them we have an alien crisis on our hands. Jazz, get real! No one ever listens to the small town dopes!"

"But you guys listened to _me_," Foster said, almost in a cute whiny way. Mary stared at him for a while and got an idea.

"Daddy, Daddy!" she said, tugging at his pants leg. He acknowledged her and bent down eye-level.

"What is it, Mimi?"

"I know this is going against what we were doing before, but what if we show the president Foster!" Daniel's eyes widened. "If he didn't come then Jazz would've fought us because we would've fought him. But Foster stopped us!"

"Yeah!" Andrew interrupted. "Let's tell a general and have Foster as proof!"

"That's a one-way ticket to the nut house!" Henry said. "Not to mention them taking Foster away."

"Worth a shot, ain't it, pretty boy?" Jazz smirked. "I'm with the little one."

Foster raised his hand. "I'm for Mimi!"

"Let's make it democratic," Andrea said. "Jazz, gimme a boost."

The Autobot bent down for her to climb from his hand over to his shoulder. Henry handed her a megaphone and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Good luck," he said. She smiled.

"Thanks."

Jazz stood up straight and looked at the townspeople that stood below them. Andrea turned on the megaphone and did a voice test about three times until everyone turned their heads to her.

"We have an idea how to fight against the Decepticons," she started. "If we can show Governor Rendell that there is a war headed here then we can get all the firepower we need to blow these suckers back!" The crowd cheered. "Now, we have an idea already how to tell them, but we need a majority vote on it. One of us thought that if we _show _the big guys our little robots here, maybe they'll believe us. Of course there are consequences, but we still think it's a shot. Now, who's for showing the governor Foster to get some guns?" She raised her hand. Half the crowd raised their hands and she had two of the police officers do a count.

"Sixty-seven, Andrea," said one.

"Alright, and who's against the idea?" Again, they did a hand count.

"Forty-nine."

"Majority rules!" Andrea cheered. "We're going to D.C.!"

Edward Rendell was working on other things, of course. Economics, politics, bills and laws, the regular agenda. He was about to sign a document placed in front of him when an officer came in and interrupted.

"Sir?" said the man. "There's some people outside that would like to speak with you."

"Who?"

"The Dawsons. That what they call themselves."

"Dawsons? I've never heard of them. Send them away."

"Sir, I really think you should speak with them."

Rendell leaned over his desk and clasped his hands together. "Officer, I'm busy right now, as you can see. I told you to send them away, so them away."

"Right away, sir. Sorry."

The man walked out of the building to see the family sitting on the steps.

"I'm sorry, but Governor Rendell is busy at the moment. He's doing something more important."

"They're always busy!" Andrew groaned. Henry shushed him and reminded him to keep his manners around a place like this.

"Did you tell him why we're here?" Daniel said.

"No, I didn't, Mr. Dawson."

"And why not?"

"Because it's bad enough that I'm concerned if your story is true or not, but if Rendell doesn't believe it, he'll immediately put you under lockdown. I don't want that happening to people like you."

Mimi whimpered at the word "lockdown." She had seen movies that whenever someone mentioned "lockdown" they were sent to jail or some other frightening facility.

Daniel smiled at the man. "What if I have proof?" he said. "What if I have proof that my story is true?"

"I'd very much like to see it, sir," said the man, anticipated to see what sort of "proof" the old farmer had.

"I'll--We'll come over tomorrow with our proof. Then you'll be the judge of whether we're crazy or not. Deal?"

"Deal."

"Right." He turned away and told everyone to get back in the car. Andrea was already inside and stared at them.

"So? What happened? He's gonna se ya?" she asked.

"Quite the opposite!" Henry grunted, climbing into the back seat with his niece and nephew. "The officer thought we were wasted and the governor's doing something 'more important.'"

"Bull water!" Andrew shouted, keeping her language around the children. "Hold me back, Danny, I'm about to go psycho cat on that b--!"

"Calm down, kid," Daniel groaned. "I told him we'll be back tomorrow with our proof. Let's just get some sleep and tell Foster what we're doing."

"Are we taking Jazz too?" Mary asked.

"Nah, he's too big. It'll cause a scene."

"Aww, that ain't fair!" said the voice of Jazz through the car's radio. "I'm good proof, right?"

"We almost shot you because you were huge and we didn't know what you were," Andrea explained for probably the thirty-second time. "We'll only show them if we need to, okay?" Jazz whined a bit and finally drove away from the governor's office.

The next day, like they promised, they brought Foster over. But they decided to keep him in Andrew's backpack until the time was right. The same man from yesterday stood at the door and smiled.

"You have proof, Dawson?" he sneered.

"Matter of fact, we do," Daniel grinned. He looked at Andrew. "Son, open the bag and show the nice man what we got."

Andrew snickered, took off his backpack, and opened it wide enough for the officer to see two blinking blue eyes staring at him.

"Howdy do!" Foster chirped. The man stepped back in surprise. He looked at the Dawsons, who were smirking back at him.

"Go tell Mr. Rendell that the Dawsons are back," he whispered. "And that they ain't leavin' until we've shown him what we need to show."

"R-Right away." The officer tilted his hat and ran inside. "Governor Rendell! Governor Rendell!"

"God, what is it now, son?" the other groaned. "I'm in the middle of a phone call!"

"Sir, the Dawsons. They--"

"Listen, if I hear another word about the Dawsons, I'll have you sent out of here."

"But--"

"No buts! Now tell them to--"

"Mornin', fellas!" Henry said as he and the others walked in. Andrew stepped up to the desk and placed his backpack right at the side of it. Mary went off to another corner to look at the old pictures of the Liberty Bell and some portraits of past governors.

"Excuse me!" Rendell shouted, putting down his phone. "Who are you people?"

"We, sir, are the Dawsons!" Daniel said, sort of mockingly happy. "Your front door was open and we decided to--"

"Enough! Get out of here!"

"Sir, we got some--"

"I said enough!" the man screamed. "Get out of here before I have you court marshaled!"

The backpack thumped.

Rendell looked at it for a brief second. "Is there a cat in there?"

"No."

"Then what is it?"

"We'll get to that," Henry said. "First we need to tell you why we're here."

"That'd be nice."

Henry ignored the sass and continued. "About a year ago we received news that there was an alien that landed somewhere within a mile of our crops."

"Oh, don't tell me you believe that."

"Sir? Please?"

Rendell nodded his head to show he wasn't going to say anything more and leaned back on his chair to listen to the rest.

"My nephew walked out to the barn to feed the dogs until something to his attention. He showed us what it was and we took care of it up to this day. Now, the reason we're here is because its parents' enemies want him for a reason that could destroy mankind. I know, this sounds a little _Independence Day_ or _War of the Worlds_, but I'm telling the truth. There's something headed here, to Pennsylvania, and we need better firepower than what we have back at Ligonier."

Rendell stared for a second, to come up with a question. "How do you know?"

"Because two scouts of theirs told us so."

Rendell laughed aloud, making Henry all the more angry.

"Scouts? What are they, some kind of military force? Mr. Dawson, I'm a governor, not a movie maker. Take your issue somewhere else."

The bag thumped wildly. "Lemme out!" Foster shouted. "I wanna piece of this bologna he's talkin'!"

Rendell looked wide-eyed at the bag and moved away from it. "There's a person in there?"

"Not a human, if that's what you mean," Daniel grinned, moving towards the bag. "Our foster child."

As he opened the bag, Foster sprang out onto the desk face first. He immediately stood up and glared at Rendell.

"You can't even spend two seconds without thinking they're crazy, can ya?" he shouted. Rendell was quiet, still shocked there was a tiny robot on his desk. The optics of the sparkling were menacing and chilled him to the core. "If you can spend your time looking at a paper with loopholes galore in it--" He picked up the piece of paper on his desk. "--then you can listen to Uncle Henry all day long!" He started to turn red and his optics yellow.

"Okay, Foster, that's enough," Daniel said. "Go get some water before you burn the place down."

The sparkling grumbled, jumped off the desk, and asked the nearest, scared-out-of-wits security guard where the water fountain was.

"What in God's name was that?"

"What, did you think I was talking about a squirrel?" Henry chuckled. "That was the alien on the news last June. That's who the town's trying to protect."

"Why?"

"Weren't you listening?" Mary spoke up. "Foster's daddy's enemies are after him. They wanna use him to take over the world."

Rendell took a sip of the glass of water on his desk and sighed. This was a little too extraterrestrial to believe. "So… if I don't give you the guns you need…we're all in big trouble?"

"Yep."

"From those things?" He pointed to Foster. It took Daniel a minute to realize what the governor was talking about. Perhaps Foster wasn't the best _physical_ example of his alien race.

"Oh no, sir," he said. "Foster's only a baby. I could show you their real size. Step outside to my car."

Rendell followed the Dawsons outside to their…sports car? Could farmers even afford that?

"Jazz, show Mr. Rendell here what we're up against."

"Sho will!" The car transformed, having the officers outside reach for their guns and rifles and aimed it at the white mech. Rendell, on the other hand, stared at the large, towering robot.

"Orders, sir!" said an officer to the governor. He was silent. "Orders, sir!"

"St-St-Stand down, men," he gasped, still awing at the robot. Jazz smirked and nodded his head.

"This is the size we're going against," Daniel said.

"Um, actually," Jazz corrected, "Decepticons are much bigger'in me. They have bigger vehicle modes."

"Like what?" Rendell dared to asked.

"Planes, jets, tanks; anything big."

Rendell looked own in horror. Could half of the U.S. military's machines be robots that were after the little one? He wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer.

"Mr. Rendell, is this enough proof for you?" Daniel asked.

"Yes… Yes, definitely!" he said. "I'll call National Guard, the Navy…Oh, forget it, I'm calling the President!" He ran inside to get the Commander in Chief on the phone.

Henry walked up to his brother and put his hands inside his pockets.

"That went better than expected," he said.

"Yep."

"You think he's gonna take an aspirin?"

"The whole bottle of it. And a stress pill or two…or five."

xXx

Author's Note: Or perhaps the whole bottle of that one, too. ;)


	17. Pray

Oh. My. Lord. Two years I have not updated any of my stories. Not ONE. I'd shower you all with excuses, but you don't want to hear them! You're here for the story! I just wrote this chapter and I hope my writing skilled haven't deteriorated. I don't know! Hopefully not with all this (excuse about AP Lang put here).

Anyway, chapter seventeen everyone. Thank you for being the most patient people on the face of the earth.

* * *

Chapter XVII

Foster sat on the front porch, staring up at the stars. He knew somewhere within those stars was his father, ready with a battalion of soldiers to fight the Decepticons. The question was would they get here in time? As far as he knew, humans could only stall. Jazz said that the Decepticons were bigger, _much_ bigger, and Jazz was pretty big by Earth standards. He could probably squeeze the juice out of one human with just a single hand. Imagine what Megatron could do…

"Hey, lil' man," said the white car, parked a few meters away. The headlights were blinking to each syllable as he spoke. "Somethin' on your mind?"

"Just a little worried… and scared," he whined. "What if he doesn't come?"

"Who, Optimus? If I know him, and I _do_ know him, he's on his way right now."

"You really think so, Jazz?"

"I know it."

The small robot smiled. He stood up and walked towards Jazz, spreading his arms onto the front bumper in a hug. "Thanks."

"No problem, lil' man."

"Foster! Get inside, it's time to eat!" Daniel called from the house. "New wrenches and some batteries for ya."

Foster gasped with excitement and ran inside. "I love batteries!"

Jazz sat, sending out coded messages past the planet's atmosphere to get into contact with any Autobot ship that might be overhead. With a stroke of luck, he received reciprocal communication with the Ark.

/_Jazz?_/

He knew that voice; it was all too familiar to front-line soldiers and pranksters aboard the ship.

"Hey there, Ratchet," he chuckled.

/_You didn't update us on your status like you said you would. Is everything okay?_/

"I found him."

/_Found who?_/

"Who else?"

There was a brief moment of silence.

/_You found him?_/

"Yep. Humans call the little runt by 'Foster.' He's a cute little guy, but he acts older than he lets on."

/_Expect nothing less from the line of Primes. Are you bringing him back?_/

He groaned. "That's the problem… He won't want to."

/_What do you mean he won't? Did you talk to him?_/

"'Course I talked to him! He wants to stay here a bit longer. Decepticons found him and he wants to make sure they don't mess with the planet he grew up on. Sort of a give back to his organic family."

He heard the doctor sigh, then another moment of silence beamed across.

/_I'll put Optimus on. Explain this to him._/

Ratchet carried the conversation over to the Autobot leader and Jazz relayed the details to him.

/_Best not to ignore this._/ he said. /_Jazz, stay put. We're coming to Earth. Tell my son I'm on my way._/

"Already did, boss. And by the look on his face, he wants to meet you."

A soft chuckle was heard over the link. /_Likewise._/ Transmission ended.

Henry was spending time on the phone with Andrea. Foster could tell that they liked each other, so why wouldn't they say anything? Out of fear of rejection? They were best friends; they would not hurt each other's feelings. Sometimes he couldn't understand how adults worked. He had told Andrea that Henry liked her, it was obvious. He didn't give her a diamond ring because they were just friends, he was trying to take it step-by-step in case she didn't like him.

_Well, you can tell she likes you, dummy!_ Foster would think. If one of them didn't confess, he just might explode and tell Henry himself _Uncle Henry, she likes you, you like her, make it happen_. Done.

"Wassa matter, Foster?" Mary chirped.

Foster realized he had dozed off and was chewing on the positive end of a battery. He bit it off and swallowed it.

"Sorry, I was thinking."

"About what?"

He looked over at Henry in the other room. He was pacing around the living room with the phone up to his ear. He turned back to Mary.

"Keep a secret?" he whispered.

Mary fidgeted in her seat. A secret? Sure! It must be good if it has to be a secret!

"Henry likes Andrea."

Her shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I know that. He told me."

"She likes him back."

"Really? How do you know?"

"I talked to her."

She looked at Henry. He was laughing. "You think they'll get married?"

"Well, they got to tell each other they love the other, but that's the problem. They're both scared."

"Why?"

"How long have they been friends?"

"Years."

"Wow… Okay, well, they're scared because they don't know if the other person will say yes. They're scared if they say no."

"That's silly," she giggled. "Of course they'll say yes. They got to!"

"Keep this secret, okay?"

"Why?"

_So we don't look nosy. _"They got to tell each other by themselves. That's just how it works."

Mary's lower lip jutted out and she crossed her arms in a pout. "Well that's stupid…"

"Tell me about it."

Henry hung up the phone and walked back into the kitchen. He saw that both Mary and Foster were looking at him and raised an eyebrow. "Is there something on my face?" he said, and crossed his eyes, making Mary giggle. He looked at his brother. "So, Dan, is this our last meal on Earth or what? It looks like you've baked for a celebration or something."

"Who knows? It might be." Daniel carried across a plate of turkey from the counter to the middle of the table. "Did you want cereal for dinner?"

"No! This is fine. It's like Thanksgiving, but better."

"Yeah, because Aunt Gwen isn't here," Andrew said, smiling.

"I second that!" Foster raised his hand.

"Me three!" Mary chirped. Henry and Daniel raised their hands halfway in agreement.

"Even though I can't stand her, she's my sister," Henry said. "May God, if she even still believes in Him, watch over her and her kids."

"And if the Decepticons get her, may she have a case of motor mouth and talk them to death," said Daniel. The kids all laughed. "Anyone else want to say a prayer before we eat?" Andrew and Mary both looked at each other. A few years ago, the Dawsons used to pray over a meal every night. After a while they fell out of the habit and only prayed for the most important things that were going on, like if someone was in the hospital or Henry decided to play the lotto once again.

"A prayer?" Foster asked, his optics brightening with curiosity.

"It's like requesting God for something," Henry explained. "Ask Him anything. Like what do you want most?"

Foster looked down. "Well, I—"

"No, Foster, wait a second," Mary said, reaching over the table and grabbing one of his hands. "You have to do it right. We all sit and we all hold hands and we take turns saying prayer."

"Oh. Okay then." He looked at Daniel, who was setting up the table. Once everyone sat down and joined hands, they lowered their heads—Mary whispering at Foster to do the same or else the prayer would not work—and went around the table.

"Well, uh…" Daniel started out. "It's been a while so, um, God? Thanks for putting my kids in my life, including Foster. I don't know how my life would've been without them. Protect us all, just so I can spend some more time with them."

"Thanks for making Daniel allowing me to move in here," Henry chuckled. "Life wasn't going so well for me until he picked up the phone. I bet You did that on purpose, huh? My life became ten times better once I got here and thirty times better when Foster came into the picture. Watch over us a little longer, for Foster's sake."

Andrew was quiet, thinking of what to say. "Uh, well, thanks for keeping our animals healthy, especially the horses. And I thank You for bringing Foster in, he's been just like a little brother to me… and older when it comes to school work. I couldn't have passed math without him." Foster smiled.

"Thanks for sending Foster here!" Mary said gaily. "He's really cute and cool. I just wish that he wouldn't have to go when all of this Decepticon stuff is over. Promise me You'll send him back to visit? Thanks. Again."

Foster sighed. "Thank You for bringing me here," he said softly. "It's been good getting to know my family here. They're really nice and fun." Mary tightened her grip on his hand, letting him know she appreciated it. "All I ask is for a victory, and to see my real dad. This planet deserves to live and I know my dad misses me." He opened his optics and looked around. "Um, so what now?" Everyone opened their eyes.

"Say 'Amen' and then we eat," Daniel said.

"Alright. Amen!"

They unlocked their hands and passed around the food to eat. Foster grabbed a couple of battery packs off the table and Henry got him an iron bar from the farmhouse. He gobbled it down greedily and burped.

"'Scuse me," he said.

They sat around the table, talking and eating, swapping stories. At different intervals, Henry and Daniel would talk about something useful to use once the Decepticons landed and then went back to a regular, Earth-bound conversation. Foster begged for background stories on both men and they told him.

Daniel had looked exactly like Andrew when he was a kid and played baseball with his friends, thinking he would be in the big leagues one day. Sometimes he would doze off while in the outfield and stare up at the sky, changing his mind about his future profession and be an astronaut. That was when a rogue ball hit him in the jaw and his mom did not allow him to play baseball any more. Once he became a teenager, he and Henry helped out their grandfather on this same farm. Once he had died, they read the will and Daniel was entrusted with the property when he turned eighteen. He lived on the farm with a few friends from school, and they all worked on it, making their own food. Eventually they all went off to college and he was left alone. A week after the last friend had left, he met Crystal, fell in love, married her within three years, and had his two beautiful children. Once he ended his story he stood and walked around the table to give Andrew and Mary a kiss on the head.

Henry said his childhood involved climbing trees and digging in the dirt; that was all he ever did. He thought he could find a dinosaur bone somewhere or maybe an ancient relic of an undiscovered civilization. He grew out of it once he reached seventh grade and his thought process went from the ground to girls. (Foster gave out a "blech!") As Daniel had said, when they were teenagers, they worked on their grandfather's farm. Once he learned that Daniel was given the farm, he was mad. Later on he realized that Daniel had been more responsible in his work and earned the farm. After he left, he went to live in New York with his sister. Very quickly, in a month, in fact, he moved out and rented his own apartment. He could not stand living with Gwen and her pickiness. He had a job in washing semi-trucks but he was getting paid less than minimum wage. He couldn't pay his rent because he was trying to buy food and he could hardly work because he had sprained his wrist once and could not afford a check-up, but he did not want to stop working. No work meant no money and no money meant homeless. On one blessed day on a beautiful April in 2002, Daniel's number from the farm had appeared on his telephone and he told Henry "You should move in with us. I've got a wife and son and a daughter on the way. I need an extra hand in the field. No rent, you can earn it working." He remembered crying that day, happy that he was moving out of his hellhole. He paid the landlord whatever he had left and went to live on the old farm.

"And here we are now!" Henry laughed. "Life was simple, life was great, life got better when you came around, Foster—"

"Now we just have to take care of those Decepticon punks and we can go back to it," Daniel finished.

"Don't worry, you guys," Foster said, standing up in his chair and putting a small fist on his chest. "When the day comes, I'm gonna save every one of you!"

The ground began to shake and Foster fell out of his chair. Mary yelped, Andrew was too scared to make a sound, Henry and Daniel went to get their rifles.

"Earthquake!" Foster screamed, hiding under the table and putting his hands above his head. "C'mon, guys! Safety protocol!" Mary crawled under the table and grabbed one of his arms. Andrew slid under and put his body over Mary and Foster to protect them. The two men of the house ran outside with their firearms.

"Jesus…" Daniel gasped. Henry had dropped his rifle and stared wide-eyed at what was before them.

Jazz was on the ground, sprawled out, and damaged, optics offline.


	18. Invasion

Gosh DURN this site has had so many updates!

I just spent an hour and a half trying to open up this story because my computer likes to be a retard whenever it opens up this fic. Only this one; I don't get what's wrong with it. I'm trying to get this mess DONE. There's probably about two chapters left, maybe a third if I want to write an epilogue.

xXx

Chapter XVIII

"Jazz!" Daniel threw down his rifle and ran over to the large white mech. "Jazz, speak to me! Say something! Wake up!" It was no use. Jazz was down for the count.

Henry ran over and inspected the robot's body. "I don't see anything. There's a small dent in his head, but that's about it."

"Something probably attacked him," Daniel muttered. "You think it might've been a Decepticon?"

"What else could it be?" But they had not heard the sound of gunfire, or any kind of brawl going on outside of the house. Whatever had surprise attacked Jazz did its job efficiently.

* * *

"Oh man, we're going to die!" Andrew cried. "I'm too young to die! I haven't even learned to play the guitar yet!"

"I didn't get to go to Paris!" Mary whined.

"Guys, just be quiet!" Foster said, hushing them. "No one's going to die, especially not like this! I'll be darned if I let my brother and sister die under the dinner table!" He crawled from Mary's grip and stood up. "What about our prayers, huh? All of us asked for protection and you know dang well that God's going to protect you! If you don't think He will, then I'll do it myself! Now come on, let's go and see what Henry and Daniel are doing." He held out his hand and helped Mary out from under the table first. Andrew crawled out by himself and ran to the open door. He saw the two adults inspecting Jazz and knew something had happened. He ran over to them, asking what had happened.

"Jazz took a blow to the head," Daniel growled. "Some freaking Decepticon might have done this to him. That's the only logical answer."

"_Ugh_…" Jazz's optics dimmed online and looked to the starry sky. One minute he was reporting to Optimus Prime, the next he saw what looked like Soundwave over in the field. Then nothing. Did that 'bot just shoot him in the head as soon as he looked? Whoever it was, whatever they did, it all was going to come down to one thing.

"Are you alright, Jazz?" Henry asked, looking over.

"I'll be fine, man…" he groaned. "We gotta get everyone outta here. They all know where Foster is, so they'll be comin' soon." He tried to stand up, but the blast to his head made his vision all burred and disproportionate. He made it to an upright sitting position before his head started to pound. "Man, there must'a been a rock in that shot…"

"Andrew, go get Mary and Foster. We're moving out now," Daniel ordered.

But Andrew did not need to go inside. The two small children were already on the front porch and knew what they had to do. Mary went off to the old silver Cadillac while Foster went and got the keys. He tossed them to Henry, in which Daniel and snatched them out of his hand.

"Jazz, are you staying here?" he asked.

"Yeah. Someone's gotta keep th' big ugly punks busy for a bit."

"Suit yourself. We're going to Andrea's house. We'll see you whenever." All of the Dawsons got into the car and drove away down the dirt path. Foster turned around in the back seat to see Jazz get up and shrink in the distance.

"Stay down, Foster," Andrew said, pulling his arm. "What if a Decepticon sees you?"

"They're coming anyway." His optics shot open wide. "My sword! Daniel, we gotta turn back! I forgot my laser sword!"

"Shit…" Daniel muttered under his breath. "Foster we can't turn back now."

"There's still time! We need that sword!"

A low rumble had vibrated the entire car and the three kids in the back started to whimper. Henry looked all around and finally saw what caused the sound. Above them, high in the sky but close enough to the ground to disturb someone's sleep, was a black spaceship.

"I'm only taking a wild guess here," he said almost sarcastically, "but I think that's the Decepticon's."

"They're going after Jazz!" Mary whined. "Now we _have_ to turn back!"

"Mary, we'll get killed!" Daniel shouted. "Jazz said he'd handle this!"

"Uh, not with a whole entire spaceship of bad alien robots!" Andrew argued.

"We're not turning back! We won't survive! We can't even help Jazz if we tried!"

"Well I can!" Foster stood up in the seat, still being smaller than the actual seat. "I built a weapon that was meant to protect all of us, even this planet. We can go back now, I'll get, and I'll help Jazz fight off the Decepticons so you guys can go and be safe at Andrea's. And I promise not to trash the barn!"

Daniel pulled over to the grass and stopped the car. He turned in his seat to look at the little green robot.

"Are you sure about this, Foster?" he asked.

Foster smiled. "Absolutely."

Daniel gave a sigh and turned the car around. "Foster? I just want you to know, if I never see you again—"

"You'll see me again."

"I mean 'if', son."

"And I'm talking 'when.' I haven't made any plans on dying tonight."

"Just be quiet and listen for a bit, you little brainiac. _If_ I never get to see you again… I want you to know that I'm very proud of you. You're like another one of my children to me and I don't want you to forget that."

"I know."

Daniel stopped the car in front of the house. Jazz had managed to stand up, but kept his hand on his head. He looked at the car and thought _What the heck are they doing? I told 'em ta get!_ Foster crawled into the front seat onto Daniel's lapped and hugged him. Immediately he hugged him back.

"I'll miss you, dad," Foster muttered.

"I'll miss you too, son."

The little sparkling moved on to give Henry a hug too. "I'll miss you too, Uncle Henry."

"Same here, midget. Kick some tailpipe for me."

He giggled. "I promise." Then he crawled into the back seat to give his siblings a group hug.

"I love you, Foster," Mary said, on verge of crying.

"You'll always be my little brother," Andrew said, sniffling a little.

"And you guys will always be in my spark." He opened the door and jumped out of the car. He waved goodbye to them as they drove away. The brother and sister turned around to wave, Henry stuck out his arm from the window, and Daniel honked the horn twice in farewell.

"The slag're you still doing here, kid?" Jazz said. "I told you to get on!"

"Don't curse at me, I'm a baby!" Foster laughed as he ran into the barn to get his energon sword. The dogs, Bud and Kenny, were still inside. When they heard all of the noise that was going on outside, they huddled together into a corner of the barn with the horses. When Foster opened the door they recognized those glowing optics and ran over to him as if nothing at all was going on and he was there to feed them. Foster shoved them away, telling them it wasn't time for treats, and grabbed the small handle off of the work bench. The dogs followed him outside and ran to Jazz, who tried to keep as still as possible so he would not step on them.

"Get these things away from me; they're gonna get squished!"

"They'll run away once the ship gets here."

"So that's what yer here for? Foster, they're military! You're just a kid!"

"A very _smart_ kid with his own sword that he built himself!" the child said matter-of-factly. "The others will be safe without me; I would've just brought the Decepticons over to Andrea's house."

"You're riskin' a lot comin' out here, champ."

"Just like my dad."

Jazz smiled for a split second then looked as the black ship became larger, getting closer to the farm. It stopped just over the town and he could see pods shooting out in different directions. Two of them were headed straight for the farm. Jazz grabbed the sparkling and ran to a safe distance before the two pods came crashing into the dirt; one of them had grazed the top of the house. The pods opened up to reveal one flier and another that seemed to be both ground and air skills.

"So this is the little Prime that was able to fend me off," said the flier.

Jazz held up his gun aiming straight for one of the wings. "Starscream."

"Octane, deal with him," the Seeker said with a sneer. "I've got the sparkling."

The triple-changer beat his fist into his other palm, challenging Jazz to a hand-to-hand combat. The white sports car gave a nod in agreement and ran off into the field to keep the fight away from the buildings, leaving little Foster to have a go at the Decepticon second-in-command.

"Where's your family, weakling?" Starscream growled. "Did they leave you behind? They must have known we were coming, after that punch to the head Soundwave gave that annoying Autobot."

"They're where you can't get to them," Foster said, the top of his optics slanting towards the middle of his face. "They're safe now."

"Oh, are they?" Starscream laughed. "The _Nemesis _is hovering right above the middle of that pathetic excuse of civilization and you think they're _safe_? Ha! That's the worst possible spot to be in!"

"Better than being here with a cocky femme."

The insult was so unexpected and so hurtful to Starscream that he actually took a small step back. Foster grinned like a little devil, knowing he had Starscream's full attention on him instead of the Dawsons.

"How dare you!" the Seeker roared. "You will pay for such rudeness!" He aimed a null ray at the green 'bot, who was not even bigger than his own foot. Foster acted quickly and ran right towards Starscream. The Seeker, surprised by this action, had kept walking backwards and firing downwards at Foster. The child was fast and ran right past in between Starscream legs and veered to the left before Starscream tripped and fell backwards onto soft dirt. He growled, stood back up, and looked around for that annoying little pest.

"Come out, you coward!" he screeched.

"I'm not hiding!"

He turned around. Foster's color had changed to blue and his optic were now grey. In his hands was a small sword made of light. The sword slashed across Starscream's right cheek and he moved back to protect himself. He lifted a hand to touch the wound and a purple fluid was leaking out. This child, a sparkling, had landed a blow before he did.

"How dare you!" the jet screamed. He wanted to fire immediately at the child, but as he put up his arm the little robot disappeared. "Where are you, you sniveling wretch!"

"You've got a whole thesaurus of name calling, don't you?" Foster's voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere. Starscream was spinning around in circles trying to find the damn sparkling.

On the other side of the property, Jazz and Octane were basically destroying all of the crops. They were pretty matched, but as the fight dragged on, the triple-changer gained the upper hand and Jazz was taking a brutal beating. If Jazz had even lifted his gun up once, Octane would push it to the side and kick the white mech right in the jaw. This Decepticon had a lot of power in him.

"Where's the rest of you Auto-scum?" Octane chuckled. "You're boring me to death here! I want a challenge!"

Jazz stayed on the ground, on his hands and knees, trying to circulate air through his system, give himself a little rest if he could.

"Not talking, huh?" He kicked Jazz again in the face and the officer went backwards into the air and landed on his side. He knew triple-changers were strong, but dang! This one must have been working out extra hours in training.

The Decepticon walked over to him, grabbed the white mech's head, and lifted him up. "You're pathetic," he spat and dropped him back down to the ground. Jazz was not sure if he could really move any more. He was bruised and beaten and scratched and dented just about everywhere. The only thing he did to Octane was probably graze his shoulder. He really wished that Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots would get here faster.

* * *

Daniel was probably going about eighty miles an hour trying to dodge all of the Decepticon troops in town, and all of the civilians. He was about to put up his hands and tell everyone to just get out of the car and run, but their best chance of getting away was to drive. Once or twice they were almost crushed by a Cybertronian foot, but managed to get away just before the impact. The sounds of explosions and screaming kept Mary cuddled into a ball, crying and praying that they would make it out and that Foster would be okay. Andrew kept looking out the window at all of the chaos going on. He hoped that if any Decepticons destroyed a building it would be the school. Henry was panicking and trying to help Daniel navigate the car at the same time.

"Look at all this crap!" he shouted. "Let's just go and hide somewhere!"

"You wanna make sure your girlfriend's alive or what, boy?" Daniel shouted back. "We're goin' to Andrea's house then getting the hell out of Dodge!" He swerved some more in the road as some telephone poles fell in his way. "Kids, buckle the straps!" The two children were already strapped in, but when their dad said "buckle the straps" he meant to really lock the straps in place, to pull out the straps, let them lock, then let them recline back in so they would not worry about hitting their heads against anything but the seat behind them.

Andrew kept a hold on his little sister's hand as they went through a nauseating ride through town. He did not know how it happened, but they had managed to get to Andrea's place with only large scratches on each face of the car. As long as it was still operational and would not blow up any time soon, Daniel was okay with it.

Henry ran up to the door and told the policewoman to probably pack a few snacks into her pockets and get in the car. Andrew unbuckled and sat closer to his sister to let Andrea sit by the window. He had enough excitement for the time being.

"Where are we headed, Daniel?" Andrea said as she also locked her strap.

"Somewhere where we can stay away from ground zero but close enough if we need to go back."

"Back for _what_?"

"For Foster of course!"

Andrea looked at the two ids sitting next to her. Where the heck _was _Foster?

"He's back at the farm," Daniel sighed, regretting to let the robot go. "He's with Jazz, fighting off some Decepticons."

"You're crazy, letting him go off like that!"

"I trust him, Andrea! I've had no reason to _not _trust him! If he says he can handle a Decepticon, I believe him."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the car was lifted up by a cybernetic hand and everyone started to panic. Andrea gave the fear at least two seconds to last and focused to figure out what was happening. She looked out the window and saw a deep red robotic eye staring right back at her. The focus that she had been trained in for years at the police academy again bolted from her and the basic instinct of fear replaced it.

"Where's the boy?" the voice of the eye had said.

Daniel's eyes widened. He knew that voice. He promised himself he would never forget it. He turned around to see the optic and glared right back at it.

"The kid's not with us, Megatron," he growled. "He's safe, you can't get to him no matter how hard you try and find him!"

"Ah, Daniel J. Dawson…" the robot chuckled. "I was wondering when I would see your face again."

"Go to Hell, ya overgrown EasyBake oven."

"Careful." The hand gripped tighter to the car, causing the metal to constrict inside. Mary screamed, afraid of getting crushed. "You don't have that orb to protect you. I can easily kill you."

"You can kiss my—"

Henry acted fast and covered his brother's mouth. One more insult out of any of their mouths and they would be bugs on windshields, almost literally.

* * *

Back at the farm, Foster was camouflaged against the dark colors of the sky. He was debating on whether he really should go back and protect his family or stay behind and help Jazz out. Then he decided, well, why not both? He flew over towards Octane and hit him with his sword against the back of the knee joint. Octane screamed so loudly that Foster wondered if he had actually killed him! The triple-changer fell to one knee as the other started pouring out purple fluids. Jazz smiled and looked up at the sky. He was about to mutter a thanks when he saw a familiar shape above one of the clouds.

"Foster, look, your dad's here," he said with a wide smile. Foster had heard him and looked up to see the same figure. An Autobot ship was lowering closer to the ground about half of a mile away from the farm. "You go say hi to 'im, buddy, I'll be alright."

"No." The voice almost took him by surprise, since he did not know the sparkling was right next to him. "You tell him what's going on. I'm going back and save my family." With that, Jazz heard the hum of the little 'bots boosters take off towards the city. Gathering strength the sports car sat up and looked at the wounded Decepticon.

"Ain't so fun when it happens to you, huh?"

Foster flew on and tried something he had never tried before. With his computer of a mind, he tried to call Henry's cell phone. He could only hope that it was on because Henry was the only one with a cell phone but he had only seen it about five times since he came to the Dawsons.

* * *

A funky 90s ringtone blared from Henry's pocket. Every eye turned to him, even the one that belonged to Megatron, and he flushed.

"Looks like, uh, someone's… calling me…" he said, embarrassed. He looked at it and the number was unknown. Still he wanted to take it so he did not look like a complete loser in front of the giant metal warlord. "Uh, hello?"

"_Yes! Your phone's on!_"

"Foster?"

The car echoed with the name and everyone inside scooted closer to try and hear the voice of the child robot. Megatron's optic brightened with interest, illuminating the inside of the car.

"Foster, you're still alive!"

"_Yeah! Are you guys okay?_"

"Uh, no, we're kind of stuck… It's Megatron."

"_MEGATRON?_" The bottom of the grey Decepticon's optic curved with amusement. "_Put me on speaker._" Henry pressed a button and held the phone out so Megatron could hear Foster's voice. "_I swear, Megatron, if you hurt my family I will kill you! And I mean it!_"

Megatron's laughed boomed. "You'll kill me? I've been inside your head, little Autobot; you don't have the spark to kill me. You'll only do so much as scratch me and hope that your useless father comes to save the day."

"_No, Megatron. I mean I will really terminate you._"

"You almost sounded serious for a moment there."

"_I _am _serious! I'll tear out your spark if I have to!_"

"Whoa, Foster, calm down," Daniel said. He had never known him to be so violent before. He could not imagine the caring little baby 'bot to actually kill anyone, even if the person was trying to kill him first.

"Words, Foster," Megatron grunted. "You're no threat to me. AGH!"

A cut to his helm had just appeared from nowhere and he dropped the Cadillac back onto the road. He looked around to face his assailant but saw no one. Then, just a few feet from his face, the small green robot appeared, hovering.

"I'm not scared of you," he said.

"You should be." Megatron reached out a hand to grab him, but he flew away to quickly and landed another strike to Megatron's right shoulder. "Imbecile!" Megatron lifted his fusion cannon and fired, trying to hit the child of Prime. Foster dodged as fast as he could, just avoiding the blasts, feeling the heat of the laser as it flew by him. He tried to make the Decepticon shoot upwards so the blasts would not hit any buildings or people. Megatron became frustrated and kicked the Cadillac on the ground, making it fly at least thirty feet and tumble across the ground. The five inside held tight to anything they could, trying not to die

Foster saw what Megatron had done and was even angrier than ever. His body turned red and his temperature rose high. With a roar he blasted a large fireball in the direction of Megatron, who almost dodged it; the fire managed to hit his foot.

"You're dead for sure, Megatron!" He held his arms up over his head and generated another ball that Mary would have easily mistaken for the sun.

xXx

We all know that one person with the jammin' ringtone.

I'll try to get this done soon, just in case my laptop decides to be mental again.


End file.
